A native from South Lake Tahoe California, Shannon trained in the Reno/Tahoe area before moving to San Francisco to train with the San Francisco Ballet School on a full merit scholarship in 2002. She has both classical and Balanchine ballet training and is well rounded in jazz, tap, hip hop, lyrical, modern, and character dancing. Shannon Joined the San Francisco Ballet in 2004 as one of the youngest company members in history. She has worked with world renowned Choreographers and has danced all over the world including France, Iceland, China, Denmark, England and the United States.
Shannon left SFBallet in 2015 to join the original cast of Tony Award winning An American In Paris on Broadway where she joined as an original member of the ensemble and later became the Lise u/s performing the role in 2017.
After An American In Paris closed in October 2017 Shannon took time away from Broadway and Ballet to focus on her music career as a singer/songwriter performing under the stage name EMPRESS®. Working with GRAMMY nominated producer, Bart Schoudel, she released her debut EP in June 2021.
You can learn more about EMPRESS here:
Shannon is an accomplished composer and wrote the music for a short film called Freefall directed by Luke Willis in 2012. Shannon’s debut as a classical composer will be for the world premiere of, 'THE WINDOW’, choreographed by Danielle Rowe, opening at the McCaw center by Pacific Northwest Ballet on November 3rd.
Shannon choreographed and starred in the short film 'PRIMA' that premiered at the TriBeCa film Festival in 2012.
Shannon has continued her interest in film by choreographing, directing, producing, editing and starring in her music videos as EMPRESS® winning first prize for ‘Best Music Video’ at film festivals all over the world.
Shannon wrote articles for Fete Lifestyle Magazine from 2015-2018 and wrote blogs for Discount Dance Supply's Dance Life from 2013-2017. She is currently writing her first middle grade fantasy novel series as well as a children’s movie and a dark comedy tv series.
