TESTIMONIALS |
Photo credit: Anna Maynard
|
FROM STUDENTS:
“Shaina is a joy to learn under. She always gauges the class to see what kind of exercises we need that
particular day. We do creative check-ins that really help us figure out where we are and what we need.
She has a beautiful vocabulary that brings her choreography to life and is endlessly patient…The kindest and brightest dance teacher.” Anonymous student in Intermediate Contemporary Technique, Wesleyan University, 2016
“The professor was a delight to work with and always encouraging. She challenged us to dance outside of our
comfort zones, which I appreciate, and incorporated both improvisation and phrase work into our daily practice, which was rewarding. She is also an inspiration in terms of her own dancing. I appreciated that she participated and demonstrated every phrase so fully and beautifully…I was inspired by her dancing each class. She was a joy to work with.” Anonymous student in Intermediate Contemporary Technique, Wesleyan University, 2016
“[Shaina’s] style is still new to me, there's such a unique combination of abandon, specificity, disorientation, fluidity versus abruptness, and so many more qualities…It took me a long time to wrap my head around it, but now that I have somewhat of a handle on it, I love it, and I love how different it is from my own. [Shaina has] helped me to think about my existing vocabulary and choreography in a much different way than I did previously. Before this class, I would choreograph a movement, think "Oh, I like that" and just use it the way I created it and be satisfied with that. Now I'm noticing that when I choreograph, I may come up with something that I really like initially, but I have been taking a second look at it, trying to alter it, disorient it, or find some other way to manipulate and make it new...” Anonymous student in Modern Technique/ Composition I and III, Keene State College, 2016
“Shaina is a perfect teacher for modern dance and contact improvisation. She's encouraging, enthusiastic, patient, and warm. She navigated the different technical levels of dancers in the class seamlessly. I'm very fortunate to have taken this class with her: I feel like I have a better understanding of my body and of others' bodies, as well as a larger kinesthetic vocabulary.” Anonymous student in Modern Dance Technique II: Contact Improvisation, Wesleyan University, 2015
“I remember when I was deciding to take this course or not, due to my crazy schedule…, Nicole Stanton…said: “You should take this course over the other dance classes you are considering because contact improvisation lives in your body differently.” She was so right. I feel these buds of new understanding everywhere in my body. I feel like every one of our classes stays with me when I walk out of the studio…Contact has been for me about…feeling fluid in a constant state of change, vulnerable inside strength, strong inside vulnerability, a little lost at sea, a little lost together…So many of the concepts we’ve explored feel so simple/intuitive/obvious and SO complex - like spirals. Shaina…broke down so many of the fundamentals, and [invited] us into each one’s complexity. This class has truly been a gift, and I am so grateful to have been a part of it.” Anonymous student in Modern Dance Technique II: Contact Improvisation, Wesleyan University, 2015
“Shaina has to be the coolest teacher I've ever had. She was so smart in structuring the class; every class felt like it progressed naturally, and we always ended feeling like we'd done something special. She really understands how to teach -- we had people from complete novices to very experienced contacters, and everyone grew boatloads throughout the class. She was always ready to try to explain something another way,
and knew when to try to explain versus when to let us figure something out on our own. I'd say about a quarter or a third of the time she would participate with us, giving us a chance to try our scores with a very advanced dancer who was unafraid to challenge us. So cool. Take her on full time; we need contact in our curriculum and she absolutely knows how to teach it!” Anonymous student in Modern Dance Technique II: Contact Improvisation, Wesleyan University, 2015
“This was such an incredibly special course. It followed a wonderful progression throughout the semester and occupied such a cherished part of my week. Assigned work was thoughtful, engaging, manageable, and helpful. The amount of assigned work outside the studio felt purposeful and extremely reasonable (and even fun!). "Evaluation" was thoughtful, conversational, and inspired students to keep thinking/doing/moving/exploring.” Anonymous student in Modern Dance Technique II: Contact Improvisation, Wesleyan University, 2015
“Professor Cantino's teaching is unparalleled. She is the best professor I have ever had. Her sincere warmth towards every student, equal attention & respectful approach, her personal and thoughtful responsiveness, her spirited energy ... She is a professor any school, any student is lucky to have. This is my first Mount Holyoke class where the whole truly feels greater than the sum of its parts, seeing the class grow and come together to form a space where people can be free to express and develop themselves. I am truly grateful for Professor Cantino's guidance. Very few persons come alive when teaching, inspiring their students, and she is one of the rare ones.” – Anonymous student in Advanced Beginning Modern, Mount Holyoke College, Spring 2014
“Professor Cantino had such a positive energy that motivated our class. She pushed us over our comfort zones to try more difficult phrases and improvisation passes, and because of her enthusiasm and control of the classroom, we learned and enjoyed them. She brought so much energy to class at 8:35 in the morning. It was always a highlight of my week.” – Anonymous student in Advanced Beginning Modern, Mount Holyoke College, Spring 2014
“Shaina is an amazing teacher. She was always present and willing to meet early or stay late to help with skills I was struggling with. She graded papers quickly and provided thoughtful feedback. The class expectations were very clear and she was always available to help me meet those expectations.”
– Anonymous student in Advanced Beginning Modern, Mount Holyoke College, Spring 2014
“Classes were run very well. I always felt engaged and interested, and didn't want class to end. I would check the clock not in anxiousness or readiness to be finished, but rather to know how much time I had left to keep practicing. Work at the barre was critical for mastering basics, and gave Shaina a great opportunity to individually correct us as we worked.” – Anonymous student in Beginning Ballet at Smith College, Spring 2013
“Shaina was always responsive to the class. She is the most supportive dance teacher I have ever had.” – Anonymous student in Beginning Contemporary, Smith College, Fall 2012
“Shaina Cantino really knows how to connect with a group of people, which is part of what made this class so enjoyable. She always checked in with us at the beginning of class and used positive affirmations throughout the class periods to show that she was engaged in our development as dancers and people in general.” – Anonymous student in Beginning Contemporary at Smith College, Fall 2012
“Shaina was very organized and very kind. She was also very patient and so talented in her craft. She is the epitome of a great teacher.” – Anonymous student in Beginning Modern at Mount Holyoke College, Spring 2013
FROM COLLABORATORS:
“Shaina was able to utilize everyone she had, and used his or her talents advantageously and together as an ensemble, to create a solid foundation for a beautiful product.” – Cast member in full-length professional show Room by Room, Spring 2011
“This was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.” – Cast member in Room by Room, 2011
“Shaina had a vision the whole time: she wanted to learn and find the dance. It felt incredibly healthy to do it this way. Everything was an experiment, and many things didn’t work, and that was okay. It felt good to say something about what I thought, and I felt like I could say something. I felt like our group dynamic was great, and I say thanks to Shaina for involving such varied and exciting people.” – Cast member inRoom by Room, Spring 2011
“Shaina is such a nurturing choreographer, and honestly, I will be forever grateful for this experience. I put my trust in Shaina and was able to discover something that had such power. Through her encouragement and commitment to this dance—creating it, playing within it, shaping and re-shaping it—Shaina made me feel comfortable, and I danced for myself. When I tell people about why this semester was the best, I talk about this dance.” – Cast member in Room by Room, 2011
“Shaina is a joy to learn under. She always gauges the class to see what kind of exercises we need that
particular day. We do creative check-ins that really help us figure out where we are and what we need.
She has a beautiful vocabulary that brings her choreography to life and is endlessly patient…The kindest and brightest dance teacher.” Anonymous student in Intermediate Contemporary Technique, Wesleyan University, 2016
“The professor was a delight to work with and always encouraging. She challenged us to dance outside of our
comfort zones, which I appreciate, and incorporated both improvisation and phrase work into our daily practice, which was rewarding. She is also an inspiration in terms of her own dancing. I appreciated that she participated and demonstrated every phrase so fully and beautifully…I was inspired by her dancing each class. She was a joy to work with.” Anonymous student in Intermediate Contemporary Technique, Wesleyan University, 2016
“[Shaina’s] style is still new to me, there's such a unique combination of abandon, specificity, disorientation, fluidity versus abruptness, and so many more qualities…It took me a long time to wrap my head around it, but now that I have somewhat of a handle on it, I love it, and I love how different it is from my own. [Shaina has] helped me to think about my existing vocabulary and choreography in a much different way than I did previously. Before this class, I would choreograph a movement, think "Oh, I like that" and just use it the way I created it and be satisfied with that. Now I'm noticing that when I choreograph, I may come up with something that I really like initially, but I have been taking a second look at it, trying to alter it, disorient it, or find some other way to manipulate and make it new...” Anonymous student in Modern Technique/ Composition I and III, Keene State College, 2016
“Shaina is a perfect teacher for modern dance and contact improvisation. She's encouraging, enthusiastic, patient, and warm. She navigated the different technical levels of dancers in the class seamlessly. I'm very fortunate to have taken this class with her: I feel like I have a better understanding of my body and of others' bodies, as well as a larger kinesthetic vocabulary.” Anonymous student in Modern Dance Technique II: Contact Improvisation, Wesleyan University, 2015
“I remember when I was deciding to take this course or not, due to my crazy schedule…, Nicole Stanton…said: “You should take this course over the other dance classes you are considering because contact improvisation lives in your body differently.” She was so right. I feel these buds of new understanding everywhere in my body. I feel like every one of our classes stays with me when I walk out of the studio…Contact has been for me about…feeling fluid in a constant state of change, vulnerable inside strength, strong inside vulnerability, a little lost at sea, a little lost together…So many of the concepts we’ve explored feel so simple/intuitive/obvious and SO complex - like spirals. Shaina…broke down so many of the fundamentals, and [invited] us into each one’s complexity. This class has truly been a gift, and I am so grateful to have been a part of it.” Anonymous student in Modern Dance Technique II: Contact Improvisation, Wesleyan University, 2015
“Shaina has to be the coolest teacher I've ever had. She was so smart in structuring the class; every class felt like it progressed naturally, and we always ended feeling like we'd done something special. She really understands how to teach -- we had people from complete novices to very experienced contacters, and everyone grew boatloads throughout the class. She was always ready to try to explain something another way,
and knew when to try to explain versus when to let us figure something out on our own. I'd say about a quarter or a third of the time she would participate with us, giving us a chance to try our scores with a very advanced dancer who was unafraid to challenge us. So cool. Take her on full time; we need contact in our curriculum and she absolutely knows how to teach it!” Anonymous student in Modern Dance Technique II: Contact Improvisation, Wesleyan University, 2015
“This was such an incredibly special course. It followed a wonderful progression throughout the semester and occupied such a cherished part of my week. Assigned work was thoughtful, engaging, manageable, and helpful. The amount of assigned work outside the studio felt purposeful and extremely reasonable (and even fun!). "Evaluation" was thoughtful, conversational, and inspired students to keep thinking/doing/moving/exploring.” Anonymous student in Modern Dance Technique II: Contact Improvisation, Wesleyan University, 2015
“Professor Cantino's teaching is unparalleled. She is the best professor I have ever had. Her sincere warmth towards every student, equal attention & respectful approach, her personal and thoughtful responsiveness, her spirited energy ... She is a professor any school, any student is lucky to have. This is my first Mount Holyoke class where the whole truly feels greater than the sum of its parts, seeing the class grow and come together to form a space where people can be free to express and develop themselves. I am truly grateful for Professor Cantino's guidance. Very few persons come alive when teaching, inspiring their students, and she is one of the rare ones.” – Anonymous student in Advanced Beginning Modern, Mount Holyoke College, Spring 2014
“Professor Cantino had such a positive energy that motivated our class. She pushed us over our comfort zones to try more difficult phrases and improvisation passes, and because of her enthusiasm and control of the classroom, we learned and enjoyed them. She brought so much energy to class at 8:35 in the morning. It was always a highlight of my week.” – Anonymous student in Advanced Beginning Modern, Mount Holyoke College, Spring 2014
“Shaina is an amazing teacher. She was always present and willing to meet early or stay late to help with skills I was struggling with. She graded papers quickly and provided thoughtful feedback. The class expectations were very clear and she was always available to help me meet those expectations.”
– Anonymous student in Advanced Beginning Modern, Mount Holyoke College, Spring 2014
“Classes were run very well. I always felt engaged and interested, and didn't want class to end. I would check the clock not in anxiousness or readiness to be finished, but rather to know how much time I had left to keep practicing. Work at the barre was critical for mastering basics, and gave Shaina a great opportunity to individually correct us as we worked.” – Anonymous student in Beginning Ballet at Smith College, Spring 2013
“Shaina was always responsive to the class. She is the most supportive dance teacher I have ever had.” – Anonymous student in Beginning Contemporary, Smith College, Fall 2012
“Shaina Cantino really knows how to connect with a group of people, which is part of what made this class so enjoyable. She always checked in with us at the beginning of class and used positive affirmations throughout the class periods to show that she was engaged in our development as dancers and people in general.” – Anonymous student in Beginning Contemporary at Smith College, Fall 2012
“Shaina was very organized and very kind. She was also very patient and so talented in her craft. She is the epitome of a great teacher.” – Anonymous student in Beginning Modern at Mount Holyoke College, Spring 2013
FROM COLLABORATORS:
“Shaina was able to utilize everyone she had, and used his or her talents advantageously and together as an ensemble, to create a solid foundation for a beautiful product.” – Cast member in full-length professional show Room by Room, Spring 2011
“This was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.” – Cast member in Room by Room, 2011
“Shaina had a vision the whole time: she wanted to learn and find the dance. It felt incredibly healthy to do it this way. Everything was an experiment, and many things didn’t work, and that was okay. It felt good to say something about what I thought, and I felt like I could say something. I felt like our group dynamic was great, and I say thanks to Shaina for involving such varied and exciting people.” – Cast member inRoom by Room, Spring 2011
“Shaina is such a nurturing choreographer, and honestly, I will be forever grateful for this experience. I put my trust in Shaina and was able to discover something that had such power. Through her encouragement and commitment to this dance—creating it, playing within it, shaping and re-shaping it—Shaina made me feel comfortable, and I danced for myself. When I tell people about why this semester was the best, I talk about this dance.” – Cast member in Room by Room, 2011
