Qarrianne Blayr (she/her), a Fayetteville, North Carolina native, joined Dayton Contemporary Dance Company’s first company in 2012 after having performed for two seasons in DCDC2. She earned her BFA degree at Howard University, studying under Sherrill Berryman-Johnson, Pat Thomas, Sandra Fortune-Green, Katherine Smith, Akua Kouyate, and Assane Konte. She studied traditional and social Jamaican dance at University of West Indies at Mona, and most recently trained and performed with The National Theater of Ghana’s National Dance Ensemble in Accra, Ghana.
Blayr’s original choreography has been presented by DCDC, DCDC2, University of Dayton, Central State University dance and theater productions, Hill Dance Theater Academy (Pennsylvania), Kazyna Dance Ensemble (Kazakhstan), Dayton Performing Arts Alliance (DPAA), and the International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD). Blayr serves as Associate Artistic Director of DCDC, and is a Founding Board Member and Teaching Artist of Dance Grenada, an annual international dance festival and conference. She also serves as Board Member for the Montgomery County Arts Camp, Cultural District, and is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.