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July 6, 1999

Shona J. Sharif

Shona J. Sharif

Shona J. Sharif, senior lecturer and adviser in the Department of Africana Studies, died June 22, 1999. She was 52.

Since 1986, Sharif had taught courses in African American health issues and African American, African and Caribbean dance at Pitt. As artistic director of the African Drum and Dance Ensemble, she choreographed and directed more than 40 performances each year, including "Swing Low, Sweet in the Morning," "African Fables" and "Black Nativity."

At the University, Sharif served as adviser to the Black Dance Workshop, a student organization, and as a FOCUS mentor, a program for African American freshmen.

In the community, Sharif taught at the Oakland School of the Performing Arts and the KUUMBA dance and theatre workshop for children in St. Clair Village.

Sharif earned her B.F.A. from Howard University in 1970 and her M.Ed. from Pitt in 1989.

This year she received the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Excellence in Dance Award and the Pittsburgh Dance Council Award for Excellence in Dance. Other awards include the Pittsburgh Dance Council 1996 Choreographers' Continuum XIII award, Pitt's 1989 doctoral fellowship award, and the 1982 Tri-State Expressions of Excellence Award.

Sharif served on the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts dance advisory panel from 1993 through 1995, and was a panelist at the 1993 International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference in Dallas, TX, and the 1996 International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference in Dayton, OH.

She is survived by her husband Ernest Bey, sons Oronde and Hassan Sharif, a granddaughter Jamayah Sharif, and three brothers, Jacob, Mark and Chris Coleman of Rochester, NY.


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