Shermica Farquhar

Shermica Farquhar (she/her/hers) is a seasoned executive with diverse experiences crossing industries and functions – from leading the regional expansion of a charter school network to restructuring teams for Fortune 500 companies and guiding executives through organizational change. But as a multidisciplinary artist, dance is her first love. She is trained in modern, salsa, hip hop, Afro-Caribbean, and West African disciplines and is a certified instructor of the groundbreaking Afro-diasporic Talawa Technique.

A Trinidadian-American with family roots in carnival mas-making traditions, Shermica harnessed this rich heritage and founded the Soka Tribe, a cultural organization that empowers others via the freedom, joy, and power of Caribbean carnival culture. In six years, Soka Tribe has performed and taught across 15 cities, 5 countries, and countless stages, including the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage and as part of its REACH Center opening ceremonies. Soka Tribe has also performed in the legendary DC Funk Parade and the embassies of Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados.

Shermica sits on the Mayor’s Advisory Commission on Caribbean Community Affairs, is the founder of the Return to the Reason Festival in Accra, Ghana and Washington, D.C, and is a former 202Creates Fellow. She is a recipient of the 2021 DCCAH Arts and Humanities Multidisciplinary Fellowship. Shermica holds a BS from Georgetown University, an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and a PhD student in the Cultural Studies Department at the University of the West Indies.

As both an artist and strategist, Shermica’s work centers on community building as a salve for social isolation. She is excited to bring this vision to Dance Place.

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