Cassandra Shore is recognized as one of the world’s foremost performers and choreographers of Middle Eastern dance.  With early background in Wigman and Graham styles of modern dance, Cassandra embraced Middle Eastern dance in the early 1970s as a student of San Francisco’s Jamila Salimpour.  From the outset, her artistic intensity, her mastery of the form’s technical complexity, and her lyrical grace and musicality set her apart from other artists. Since then, she has studied and performed with some of the world’s leading Middle Eastern artists, including Mahmoud Reda, Director of Cairo’s Reda Group, and former Egyptian Undersecretary of Culture; and Mohammed Khalil, Director of the National Folklore Group of Egypt.  She has been honored twice as the only non-Arab dancer to perform at the annual Arabic festival, Maharajan al-Fan, in New York City; and Palestinian oud superstar Simon Shaheen calls her his “choreographer of choice.” Cassandra’s background in modern dance, with a studies in Jazz and Flamenco, drove her to explore ways to move Middle Eastern dance “beyond the museum,” and to create original, theatrically-inspired choreography that blends traditional and contemporary Middle Eastern forms.  Inspired and encouraged when she saw other Arab artists moving in this direction, Cassandra founded Jawaahir Dance Company in 1989 (JaWAHheer, meaning “jewels”) as a way to showcase this exciting work as a vibrant living art form, steeped in generations of traditional learning, and resonating with new times and new cultural experiences.