A native of East Orange, New Jersey, Sonia Dawkins has worked as a professional choreographer and modern dance teacher since 1993. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, and her Masters Degree in Dance with an emphasis in Choreography and Education from State University of New York, Brockport.

As a graduate student, Sonia Dawkins studied at the Edna Manley Performing Arts and Visual Arts College in Jamaica and conducted research on how ritual folk dances can be incorporated into modern dance.  She performed professionally with the National Dance Company of Jamaica and independent choreographers in New York.

Ms. Dawkins founded Sonia Dawkins / Prism Dance Theatre in 1994 in Philadelphia, where she also established an ongoing dance appreciation project in the public school system, The Children’s Workshop.   For nearly three years, she was an artist-in-residence at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington DC.

Sonia Dawkins moved her dance company to Seattle in 1999, where she also became a faculty member at Pacific Northwest Ballet.  In 2001 Ms. Dawkins began consulting as a dance and performance coach for Rise n’ Shine, a non-profit organization that provides emotional support and stability to children and teens whose lives are affected by HIV/AIDS.  She is a visiting teacher with Arts Corps , an after-school arts education program in Seattle, as well as an adjunct instructor at Centrum Arts and Creative Education in Port Townsend.

In 2007, Ms. Dawkins opened Sonia Dawkins/Segue, an arts center dedicated to furthering careers in the performing arts.  A collaboration with professionals from many areas, Sonia Dawkins Segue offers workshops, master dance classes, body conditioning classes, yoga, voice, career mentoring, and career planning.

"Sonia Dawkins is one of those rare, talented individuals."

—The Jamaican Record