Irishia Romaine (she/her) is a choreographer, filmmaker, and educator from South Carolina. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dance at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania and a 2024 Mellon Arts & Practitioner Fellow at the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration (RITM). Additionally, Irishia holds the distinction of being the inaugural recipient of the Donald McKayle Legacy scholarship.

Her research in screendance examines the unwritten history of Black moving image arts through the lens of Africanist aesthetics in American dance, photography, and film. In the summer of 2024, Irishia completed a Short-Term Fellowship at the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture for her project,"Reimagining Screendance: Reclamation of Black Aesthetics in Dance Film History."

Irishia has worked with renowned choreographers such as Donald McKayle, Joanna Kotze, Ephrat Asherie, Idan Cohen, and Greg Chapkis. In 2022, she received a Hicks Choreographer Fellowship from the School of Jacob's Pillow, where she was mentored by Dianne McIntyre and Risa Steinberg. Her work has been showcased in various California-based festivals, including the BlakTinx Dance Festival, HHII Dance Festival, ArtBark International, Dancexchange, Highways 50/50 Show, Pasadena Dance Festival, San Pedro Festival of the Arts, Spector Dance, and Lula Washington Dance Theater’s “Dance All Day” Festival.

As a filmmaker, Irishia explores themes of visibility, ancestral veneration, and Black liberation. She has studied under screendance artists such as Katrina McPherson, Cara Hagan, Kelly Hargraves, Robin Gee, Ben Estabrook, Chad Michael Hall, and Charlotte Griffin, and is currently a board member of Dance Camera West. Her films have gained international acclaim, premiering at prestigious festivals including the SF Dance Film Festival, Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, FRAMERUSH, Cinevox, ADF Movie By Movers, Auro Apaar, Dancecinema, and Desassossego Short Dance Film Festival. Notably, her film "Red Line" was selected for Dance Camera West's 2022 Mentorship Program and won the Denton Black Film Festival's 2024 Virtual People's Choice Award. This film has been screened in diverse locations, including India, Spain, Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington D.C., North Carolina, Texas, Michigan, and the United Kingdom. 

Irishia holds an MFA in Modern Dance and a certificate in Screendance from the University of Utah, where she received the Ellen Bromberg Dance Media Award, the College of Fine Arts Creative Research Award, and a University Teaching Assistantship (UTA). Her other roles include professional stager for the Donald McKayle Legacy and Visibility Program Coordinator for Dance Camera West.