A born and bred California girl, Melodie Jeffery-Cassell received her BA in Theater Arts/Dance from Cal State University, East Bay. She trained at San Francisco’s - ODC and Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, New York’s - Merce Cunningham Studio, Dance Space (DNA): Limon-Jim May/Release-Alexandra Beller and various), Steps on Broadway (Contemporary Jazz: Hicks/Stone) and the Paul Taylor Intensive. Jeffery-Cassell has a minor in Women’s History and has specific interest in the pioneers of Modern dance.
Jeffery-Cassell has performed as a member of San Francisco Bay Area-based companies Dandelion Dance Theater, Nina Haft and Dancers, Randee Paufve, in Joe Goode’s “Murder In The Family” and with New York-based Pascal Rekoert, Bernier Dance, and YC Movement Theater. She has performed internationally including the 2001 Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. Jeffery-Cassell continues to perform as principal dancer of YC Movement Theater and for Tony Williams’ Urban Nutcracker. Of Jeffery-Cassell’sperformance in YC’s Moonlight Interior, the Boston Phoenix’s Marcia Seigel writes, “Melodie Jeffery was a marvel with a quiet and spiritual fluidity in her movements…Ms. Jeffery's solo reminded me of pure bliss…she was able to convey so much with so little…I felt a shiver in my spine; beautiful.”
While in New York City, Jeffery-Cassell was on faculty at Peridance International Dance Center, Mark Morris Dance Center, The Brearley School, and the 92nd Street Y. She and her husband co-founded The Horizon Summer Workshop Series in Tarrytown, New York, which educates students in the art of dance, movement, and theater. Now a Bostonian, Jeffery-Cassell teaches for Concord Academy’s Summer Stages, serves as assistant choreographer of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and is a proud faculty member of Boston Ballet School, Boston Ballet's Education and Community Initiatives, and Walnut Hill School for the Arts.
