Laurel Shastri

Laurel Shastri (M.S. in Geology) brings a unique
perspective to dance. An experienced teaching artist,
she specializes in integrating dance with diverse
subjects such as science and language arts. She is part
of Arts Council Santa Cruz County’s Artist Teacher
Partnership, co-facilitates teaching artist workshops,
and serves in Montalvo Arts Center’s Teaching Artist
Program. She has presented workshops for educators
at San Jose State University’s Marion Cilker
Conference for the Arts in Education, Montalvo’s Arts
in Your Classroom Conference, Tennessee Art
Commission’s Creativity in Education, Arts 360 (Knox
County, TN), National Association for State Arts Agencies, Value Plus,
Southeast Center for Education in the Arts, and Arts Build.

Laurel’s integrated lesson, ‘Greetings Through Movement’ is featured in the
college text ‘Creating Meaning Through Literature and the Arts,’ by Claudia
Cornett. She served seventeen years at Ballet Tennessee, as Associate
Director, company dancer, faculty, and grant writer. She was on the faculty of
the model outreach programs Dance Alive and Talent Identification Program.
She is a faculty member of Dancenter with certification in Progressing Ballet
Technique and performs with MoveSpeakSpin, a contemporary dance
company directed by Karl Schaffer. In 2015, she was resident dancer at the
Djerassi Artist Residency Program’s Scientific Delirium Madness II. She is the
recipient of Ballet Tennessee’s 2018 Dance Alive Legacy Award.