Yo-El Cassell
Movement Director - Choreographer - Teacher
INTERVIEWS & FEATURES
FEATURED AMONG MAJOR MEDIA OUTLETS ACROSS NEW ENGLAND AND BEYOND.
“Why Would We Move? Musings on Movement Practice and Training”
Howlround Theatre Commons - Essay by Yo-El Cassell — NOV. 2017
“When working with actors, regardless of experience, the key is in the welcoming. It is in allowing them to explore how their body, their instrument, provides access to their imagination.”
“DREAM BIG & Make the move”
Dance Life — DiscountDance.com — MAY 2014
“I thought I would never leave New York, having been born upstate and having a fascination with the city since I was young. I remember feeling a sense of anxiety on the day we were traveling to Boston for good. In the end moving to Boston was the best decision my wife and I made, hands down.“
“Meet Yo-EL Cassell”
Meet Yo-El Cassell of Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theatre.
Boston Voyager -— MAR. 2018
“I found my identity. I discovered a channel to connect to other senses and most importantly, to embody my inner thoughts and imagination. Movement allowed me to discover what it means to be alive; to discover a channel of expression that feels organic, innate and truly from the soul. I felt like, I finally found wings to soar. It was not only transformative but essential as well.” — Cassell
“Boston Ballet’s ‘Citydance’ PROGRAM STRONG AFTER 20 YEARS”
Boston Globe — APR. 2012
“On the sidewalk just outside Boston Ballet’s Clarendon Street studios, third-graders of all shapes and sizes were spilling out from big yellow school buses with bouncy energy and happy chatter. It was the final week of dance classes for the 240 students of Boston Ballet’s Citydance program, which has reached more than 60,000 Boston public school students in its 20-year history.”
Citydance program manager Yo-el Cassell with students José Garcia and Madeline Romero.(ARAM BOGHOSIAN FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)
The Journey, 2018 - Pat Greenhouse
“At BU’s new Booth Theatre, room to move and to imagine”
Boston Globe — APR. 2018
“Oftentimes you have the challenge of trying to retrofit older spaces, or there’s a historic preservation element to it,” he says. “But we were just blessed with the opportunity to have no responsibility to the past whatsoever. Instead, we have responsibilities to the future.” — Jim Petosa
PRODUCTION REVIEWS
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”
TheatreMania — OCT. 2017
“Paul Daigneault directs the work, aided enormously by Yo-El Cassell in moving a shape-shifting troupe of performers around the stage to re-create the universe of Christopher's mind.”
Laura Latreille and Eliott Purcell in SpeakEasy Stage Company's production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, directed by Paul Daigneault.
(© Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots)
Colin Wulff (First Gentleman), Dalton Davis (Longaville), Jason Bowen (Berowne), Nash Hightower (Dumain), and Jes Bedwinek (Maria) in Love's Labour's Lost, directed by Steven Maler, on the Boston Common.
(© Andrew Brilliant)
“Love’s Labour Lost”
TheatreMania — JULY 2016
“However, given the many added songs and dances, choreographed by Yo-El Cassell, including an amusing, mock-Russian number for the quartet of lovesick swains in disguise, it comes as a surprise that Shakespeare's lyric, "Cuckoo, Cuckoo, cuckoo," was cut at the end, and replaced by his Sonnet 73.”
“COMMONWEALTH SHAKESPEARE COMPANY - KING LEAR"
Boston Globe — JULY 2015
“The moral myopia of the older generation is underscored in a wordless dream sequence (choreographed by Yo-el Cassell) that serves as a kind of prologue to the CSC production. Lear, in a gold-trimmed blue military uniform, revels in his stature as his daughters and others dance obsequiously around him, only to be abruptly blindfolded and disorientingly hoisted aloft while still on his throne, a suddenly ridiculous figure who has lost his once-unshakeable power.”
Will Lyman (second from left) leads a solid cast in “King Lear.” (BARRY CHIN/GLOBE STAFF)
“Dance is the thing at fizzing Boston Landmarks concert”
Boston Classical Review — APR. 2016
“Yo-El Cassell’s choreography, which involved young dancers from One City Youth Movement in darting, angular movements, aptly reflected Needham’s energetic music.”
COMEDY OF ERRORS, COMMONWEALTH SHAKESPEARE COMPANY
Boston.com —Aug. 2009
“To keep the screwball comedy flowing, choreographer Yo-el Cassell also does a terrific job using dance routines as scene transitions. His choreography is fluid and athletic, spills all across the stage and into the audience, and helps keep us oriented to the South Beach setting.”
From left: Zophia Gozynska, Larry Coen, Dan Roach, and Jennifer Ellis in Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s “The Comedy of Errors.’’ (Photos By Andrew Brilliant/Brilliantpictures Inc.)