We were lucky to catch up with Cassandra Duffy recently and have shared our conversation below.
Cassandra, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
By exploring every possible path to creativity. As I continue to develop my professional career there are frustrating moments when you feel yourself plateau. These moments become apparent to me when trying to create new movement/choreography. Frustrated that I keep repeating and falling back on old movement habits. When I find myself feeling this way I think back to past exercises I have learned from previous instructors. One of my favourite exercises is to observe an inanimate object in your everyday settings. For example in front of me rests a glass cup.
What is the texture of the cup? Smooth with chips found along the rim from use and wear. What shape is the cup? The rim is circular with a rounded edge. The sides are curved that taper at the bottom. Is the cup see through or solid? Because the cup is made of glass it is see through, however, there are lots of reflections depicted upon the surface. With only three observations made we have gained a base understanding of the object and can create a new movement prompt. Such movement can consist of rounded smooth/flowing movements that taper at the end before sharply transitioning into the next phrase (the sharp movement derives from the chips found upon the cup). The path to creativity is to explore your natural environment. Observe it, interact with it, and understand how you can manipulate it to form various new movement vocabulary. Note, your environment consists of various elements. You can observe the objects that rest within the environment, along with the individuals who interact with the environment. How do they naturally manipulate the environment around them? How does the weather affect your environment? Keep questioning your interactions with the environment around you and how you can change/manipulate this movement into choreography.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Cassandra Duffy, a graduate from Western Kentucky University (WKU). Where she pursued a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dance with a Performing Arts Administration Minor. Starting dancing at the age of ten, Cassandra comes from a studio with a competitive and performance background; with training in ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, modern, and hip-hop. With professional training in ballet, tap, jazz, and modern at WKU; additional training in improvisation, choreography, dance pedagogy, dance anatomy and kinesiology, and dance history. Throughout her collegiate career, Cassandra was a member of WKU’s resident Dance Company, where she performed in each end semester productions. Besides being an active company member, Cassandra presented choreographic works in formal showcase “Dance Project”, along with informal student showcase “Last Chance to Dance”. In previous summers, Cassandra has been a Resident Assistant at the Orlando Ballet Summer Intensive, where she has had the opportunity to train with Phillip Broomhead, former Royal Ballet principle, and award winning choreographer Parker Esse.
Cassandra currently serves as an instructor at Dance South Performing Arts Conservatory located in White House, TN. Here at Dance South, we strive to provide a well rounded curriculum to help prepare our students for their future careers. I instructor levels III – VI in various dance genres (ballet, jazz, tap, and hip-hop) provide here at the studio. Along with instructing, I am serving as the rehearsal director for our youth cast of Nutcracker! A Magical Christmas set to perform at the Rythmn Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee on December 24th.
I, also, currently serve as the Artistic Director for our youth ballet company; Middle Tennessee Youth Ballet, who recently performed at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida in 2024.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
An area of knowledge that was impactful in my development as a dancer was exploring the relationship between dance and anatomy/kinesiology. During my high school years understanding the anatomical structure of the body was never emphasized. Typically the movement was broken down and only specific parts of the body (usually the body part involved) was specifically discussed. As I continued my career it became apparent to me how much of the body is working during a specific movement. Let us break down the movement called, “tendu”. Tendu is a ballet terminology meaning to stretch, specifically of the foot either in-front, side, or behind the individual to a full pointe. This specific movement has the individual transfer the weight from both feet to one foot in a quick succession. What never occurred to me during my younger years was the importance of keeping my weight in the ball of my foot on the standing leg (the leg not completing the tendu). Along with keeping my pelvis in the correct alignment, not allowing anterior pelvic tilt to occur because I have disengaged my lower abdomen. Gaining a better understanding of the anatomical body will allow an individual to understand the alignment of the body and how the movement should physically feel when completing. This also helps reduce risk injury when exploring new movement.
What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?
A well rounded dancer is a hireable dancer. This was a phrase my home studio instructor always told us. I definitely agree with this phrase, not that being a hireable dancer is of most importance but creating a well rounded curriculum eliminates an individual being limited to a certain genre of dance movement. As an instructor I typically see this occur in students who strictly train in ballet. Ballet is a wonderful movement foundation as most dance genres either stem from or have similar movements. However, the risk of injury increases when an individual strictly trains in one genre. Ballet has a high risk of upper body injury occurring due to most of the strengthening exercises focusing on the lower body. Many major ballet companies have now incorporated cross training within their curriculum to help students develop upper body strength to support strenuous movement.
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Image Credits
Jeremy Cowart
Jennifer Duffy
Cassandra Duffy
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