ARABESQUE ACADEMY — Cassandra Shore
Cassandra Shore (Artistic Director) has been involved in the study, performance, and production of dance of the Arabic- speaking world since 1975. She began her study and performance career in San Francisco, relocated to Minneapolis, and due to demand, opened The Cassandra School in1978. Cassandra now teaches and performs internationally. She began research trips to North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean in 1981; that research continues, with invitations to teach and perform in Egypt and Morocco. In order to fulfill her vision of placing the aesthetic of Middle Eastern dance on the theater stage to take its place with Western dance arts, she formed Jawaahir Dance Company in 1989. Cassandra is a pioneer in the development, education, and creative exploration in and about this dance form.
May 4-5, 2013
Workshops: 30 Gloucester St, Party Room
Performance: 1 Gloucester St.
May 4, 12:00-2:00pm: Karsilaama Greek/Turkish Nightclub style
May 4, 3:00-5:00: Danse Orientale Technique Intensive
May 4, 8:00pm: Cassandra Shore Performance
May 5, 12:00-2:00pm: Moroccan Cheikhatt
May 5, 3:00-5:00pm: Taqsim/Improvisational Skills
PRICES:
$65 per Workshop
$25 Cassandra Shore & Special Guests Performance Ticket
$245 for all 4 workshops and performance ticket!
$195 Early Bird price for first 10 registrants
9/8 Karsilaama Greek/Turkish Night Club Style
Saturday, May 4
12:00-2:00pm
Until the spread of Egyptian style, many professional dancers performed with Greek, Turkish, or Armenian bands throughout North America. This dance was a popular, thrilling, lively finale to the classic club routine. Karsilaama is filled with flashing skirts, bouncy movements, and exciting cymbal patterns. We'll explore the basic style and rhythm, and learn spicy steps to add to your finale! Please bring cymbals and a circle skirt.
Danse Orientale Technique Intensive
Saturday, May 4
3:00-5:00pm
In this non-stop class we'll drill our technique, add layering, nuance, and make "sentences" (phrases and combinations) that you can use or expand in your own Orientale performances. Bring veils and good dance energy.
Moroccan Cheikhatt
Sunday, May 5
12:00-2:00pm
Cassandra will present Cheikhatt Styling, combinations using the distinctive earthy and playful movements of the "wise women" of Morocco. Cheikhatt dance includes vigorous pelvic movement, delicate hand movements, hair tossing, and footwork patterns. A costuming demonstration and discussion is included.
Taqsim / Improvisational Skills
Sunday, May 5
3:00-5:00pm
What constitutes a taqasim (melodic improvisation) and how does a dancer deal with it to make it part of a great dance show? We'll work with different instruments and taqasims, both "on the beat" and without an underlying pulse. We'll also explore, in movement, ideas of how to tailor your dance techniques to any music.
CASSANDRA & FRIENDS PERFORMANCE
Saturday, May 4, 2013
at Arabesque - 1 Gloucester St., #107
Tickets $25 in Adv, $30 at Door
Call to order: 416-920-5593
Cassandra Shore - Full Biography
Cassandra Shore began performing Middle Eastern dance in 1975, as a student of Jamila Salimpour, and quickly became one of the most popular and respected performers in the San Francisco Bay area. Her intensity, musicality and technique set her apart from the average performer. Cassandra brings to dance lyrical grace, musical focus, and a sensuous quality of movement that brings mere technique to life.
Cassandra relocated to Minneapolis in 1977. She opened the Cassandra School in 1978, in response to numerous requests for classes from women who saw her nightclub performances and were inspired to learn. In 1980 she was able to obtain some early videotapes of Egyptian soloist and folklore group performances, and recognizing their expertise and knowledge, she traveled to Egypt on her first research trip in 1981. She has since returned over a dozen times for dance and cultural research, as well as exploring virtually all North African countries as well as Turkey and Greece in her search for cultural understanding, authentic techniques, and inspiration.
Ms. Shore's dance background prior to her focus on Middle Eastern dance was primarily in the Wigman and Graham styles of Modern dance. Her modern dance education contributed heavily to her unique vision of Middle Eastern dance and innovative ways to use it in choreography. She has also studied Jazz, Flamenco and Tai Chi Ch'uan. She continues to study other dance, not as a formal study, but for her essential continuing education and inspiration.
Cassandra is a student of the finest teachers and choreographers the Middle East and the USA has to offer. This list includes Mahmoud Reda, director of the Reda Group, Cairo, Egypt, and former under secretary of Culture; Mohammed Khalil, director of the National Folklore Group of Egypt; Vivian Hamamjian, former member of the Caracalla Ballet, Beirut; Ragia Hassan, choreographer to Egypt's top dance stars and former member of the Reda Group; Ibrahim Farrah, director of the Near Eastern Ensemble, NYC, the first professional US performing company in Middle Eastern dance. Those are but a few names from a stellar list.
Cassandra realized the artistic limits of the nightclub stage, seeking out theatrical venues for her emerging and unique choreographic ideas. Influenced and encouraged by the great choreographers and teachers in her field who were putting their work on the stage, Cassandra formed "ad hoc" performing groups of students, for performances. In 1989 she held auditions to form Jawaahir Dance Company in order to be able to have a repertory of traditional, modern and fusion works of Middle Eastern and contemporary dance.
Through her dedication, devotion and discipline, Cassandra has earned worldwide acclaim form the masters in the field as a master teacher, star performer, and creative artist in the field of Middle Eastern dance. Her work has been rewarded with grants, commissions and awards. She offers workshops, intensives, concerts and master classes worldwide.
Cassandra teaches and performs regularly in worldwide location such as Helsinki, Finland; Los Angeles, CA; London, England; Houston, TX; Cologne, Germany; Vienna, Austria; New York, NY; Miami, FL.; and more too numerous to list. The Cassandra School offers 15 classes a week in Minneapolis, from beginning to professional levels.