Boston - Education and Outreach Teaching Specialist
Boston - Pre-Professional Program
Boston/Newton - Classical Ballet Program
Boston/Newton - Adult Program
Yo-el Cassell, a graduate of The Boston Conservatory (Magna Cum Laude), has also received his training in mime and puppetry. He has performed and worked with The Paul Taylor Dance Company, Pearl Lang Dance Theater, Rob Marshall, Pavel Zustiak’s Palissimo, Hubbard Street Dance, The American Mime Theater, Scott Ellis, Heidi Latsky Dance Theater, The Virginia Opera, Spencer/Colton Dance, Julie Taymor as well as the PBS Broadcast of Shining Time Station and the motion picture, What Alice Found. Other films he has occurred in have been the PBS Broadcast of Anatomy of a Ballet, and Rob Marshall’s Memiors of a Geisha.He was also involved in the Broadway production of Pinocchio( Gepetto and Son), appearing as the title character, a role for which he received the 2008 Tony Award.
The NY times cited his dancing as, “A cross between Charlie Chaplin, Fred Astaire and a beautiful modern dancer, Mr. Cassell moves in an original and holistic way. He conveys that inner spark that just wants to escape...his dancing is simply transporting and engrossing.” He is also well known to Boston Audiences for his performance in Anthony Williams’ Urban Nutcracker for which the Boston Globe has stated Mr. Cassell as “One of the most expressive mimes of his generation.”
A prolific choreographer and teacher, he is the recipient of The Lotte Kaliski Award for Gifted Artists and has received a fellowship from SummerStages Dance in Ma. He has presented his choreographic images in and outside of New York City including Dance Theater Workshop, Tarrytown Music Hall, The Helsinki Dance Festival, St. Mark’s Church, Joyce Soho, The Walnut Hill School of The Arts, The Boston Opera Collaborative( Alcina, Little Night Music), The Common Wealth Shakespeare Company ( Comedy of Errors, Othello), The Lyric Stage of Boston, Symphony Space, The Nantucket Dreamland Theater and Skidmore College, where he was a guest artist/teacher in residence for four years. He has also created work for Hubbard Street Dance, The American Repertory Ballet, Washington Ballet, the Citi Performing Arts Center and his choreography can be seen in the films, Cultivating Stillness, Rob Marshall’s Memiors of a Geisha, Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. He is the artistic Director of YC Movement Theater, a fusionist dance theater ensemble. Their production of Moonlight Interior recently premièred to critical and public acclaim Off-Broadway. He has also taught at the Walnut Hill School of The Arts, The School for Film and Television, American Repertory Ballet, and The High School of Performing Arts in NY. His teaching stresses the importance of creating a well rounded dancer as artist, exploring the importance of combining solid technique with an innate sense of artistry,drawing influence from all aspects of the arts, not just dance. He moved from NYC with his wife, Melodie Jeffery Cassell, and is delighted to be part of the development of The Modern Dance curriculum and as the head teaching specialist for the Outreach Department at Boston Ballet.
