Matthew Shaffer

Matthew Joseph Shaffer (born May 4, 1978)[1] is an American musical theatre, television, and film actor, director, executive producer, author[2] , and choreographer. He was born in Florence, Colorado, USA.

Matthew Shaffer
Matthew Shaffer in attendance at the Television Academy's event, "Whose Dance Is It Anyway?" celebrating the work of choreographers.
Born
Matthew Joseph Shaffer

(1978-05-04) May 4, 1978
Colorado
OccupationActor, dancer, choreographer, author
Years active1992–present
Notable work
So You Want To Be A Dancer? Dancing Out of the Closet
Spouse(s)
Jeffrey Paynton
​
(m. 2013)​

Career

Shaffer began his career in Southern California. He attended Orange County High School of the Arts. He was accepted as a performing apprentice to the concert dance company Giordano Dance Chicago in 1996. He became a principal in the company the following year. After three years touring the United States and Europe he left the company. He worked in the ensemble of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall in New York City for five seasons. Shaffer was involved in the final stunt of the feature film Jackass Number Two, with Johnny Knoxville. Shaffer had comedic roles in two off-beat and independent short films: Feet Afire in 2005, and in 2006 the movie Queerspiracy, which was an official selection at the 2007 Breckenridge Film Festival. In November 2006, he originated the role of Bergdwarf Goodman, the narrative gnome in the Los Angeles Opera production of Hansel and Gretel at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. In October 2007, he completed his first 35 mm film project as choreographer on the set of Harrison Bergeron, based on the Kurt Vonnegut short story. In November 2007, Shaffer originated the lead role "Sim" in the revival of Ray Bradbury's Frost and Fire directed by Zina Bethune, at the Alex Theatre, in Los Angeles, CA.[3] From 2010 through 2015 Shaffer and his producing partner, Jeff Payton created 40 pop culture digital shorts, which garnered a large fan base and led them to create and option two television pilots.[4] In 2015 Shaffer's first book, "So You Want To Be A Dancer", was published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group.[5] In 2016 he was commissioned by Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania to choreograph his first concert dance piece entitled, "Give Me A Mingus" set to the music of Charles Mingus.[6]

Roles

Theatre

Film/Television

Writings

Shaffer authored his first book, So You Want To Be A Dancer, March 9, 2015.[11] On March 29, 2015 he launched So You Want To Be A Dancer at Broadway Dance Center and continued on a nationwide tour, teaching and promoting his book which was a Number 1 New Release in the Performing Arts category on Amazon.com.[12][13][14] Matthew is also one of fifty contributing authors of the book, The I'Mpossible Project: Reengaging With Life, Creating a New You, an inspirational book which highlights topics including, empowerment, suicide prevention, and LGBT themes; released by Skookum Hill Publishing on January 13, 2016.[15] On September 10, 2019 Shaffer releases his sophomore book Dancing Out of the Closet, a collection of comedically true stories about his life as an performer living "in" and eventually "out" of the closet.[16]

Published works
  • Shaffer, Matthew (2015). So You Want To Be A Dancer. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781630760267.
  • Shaffer, Matthew (2016). The i'Mpossible Project: Reengaging With Life, Creating a New You. New York: Skookum Hill. ISBN 9780986096471.
  • Shaffer, Matthew (2019). Dancing Out of the Closet. Georgia: BearManor Media. ISBN 9781629334554.[17]

References
  1. IMDb
  2. Backstage Magazine So You Want To Be A Dancer
  3. Official Website
  4. April 2012, Vol. 15, Iss. 4, pg. 62, by: Jeff Katz, "InterAction"
  5. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781630760267
  6. https://www.sru.edu/news/020317b
  7. LA Opera website
  8. IMDb
  9. IMDb
  10. IMDb
  11. Rowman & Littlefield So You Want To Be A Dancer
  12. "Broadway Dance Center Day of Dance". Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2015-09-12.
  13. PressPass LA
  14. PitchEngine Choreographer and Author No. 1 on Amazon
  15. Amazon
  16. BearManor Media
  17. Amazon
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