Bio

 was an original (featured) cast member of the three time Tony award winning Broadway musical Fela! directed by Tony Award winner Bill T. Jones. She has toured with the show performing nationally and internationally.  Iris began her dance and theater training at the tender age of 7 where she studied and performed with Black Spectrum Theater for 7 years. She later went on to study dance with the Stanley Bates Dance Theater under the direction of the late Stanley Bates. While in high school, Iris received a scholarship to study Graham at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. She later went on to study at the Alvin Ailey School in their certificate program. She was also the recipient of a Presidential scholarship to study modern dance at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont. Iris holds a master’s degree in dance education from New York University. She is currently a dance educator at P.S. 9.   

As a choreographer, her work has been presented in the first Black National Dance Festival in Vienna Austria, the International Dance Festival in Costa Rica, the world’s famous Apollo Theater in New York City, the Late Nite Artist series at the Pillsbury Theater in Minneapolis, Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan and Dance Africa Denver. She currently travels to Santiago De Cuba to teach, perform and collaborate with Santiago’s premier dance company Cutumba and the School of Arts.