Caymanian dancer Cassiedy Davis Quintero is making moves in the highly competitive New York dance scene, proving that passion and dedication can bridge any geographical gap.
One of her most recent achievements is becoming a dance instructor, teaching Afro-Caribbean classes at The Hochstein School of music and dance in Rochester, New York.
Davis Quintero, who once assisted with the school’s summer dance camp, has now become one of their newest faculty members.
When reflecting on the unique perspective she brings to this new role, she connected it back to Cayman.
“The Rochester, New York dance scene is extremely versatile [with] classes … from modern, ballet, African, Afro-Cuban, Bollywood, salsa … therefore, most dancers are familiar with the Caribbean, specifically … Jamaica, Cuba, Trinidad and Barbados. However, it is rare to find someone who knows about our beloved isle Cayman. I will be educating the Rochester community on Caymanian quadrille,” she said.
Other genres she said will be focused on during her classes are dancehall, reggae, calypso and soca.
She said that this role means a lot to her as she has been provided an opportunity not only to share her culture and experiences, but also “make new connections, and work alongside and meet more amazing dancers and instructors in this community”.
A dance journey
Davis Quintero, 25, said she’s always been a part of dance performances and clubs in school from the age of 3, but it was not until she was 16 that her focus on dance shifted while completing an associate arts degree in business administration from 2016-2019.
“I took dance composition during my associate degree at the University College of the Cayman Islands where I started to consider pursuing dance,” she said.
During this time, she travelled to Barbados for CARIFESTA XIII in 2017 with the Cayman dance contingent and met Melisha McField, the founder of Dreamchasers Cayman.
“Ms. Mel fully opened my eyes and my heart. My passion for dance grew more than just something I would do as a hobby, but something I could see myself pursuing as a career long term,” she said.
“[She] is undoubtedly one of the people who has not only inspired me to follow this career path, but is someone who is still supporting, motivating, encouraging and believing in me throughout my whole dance career,” she added.
Although Davis Quintero is currently in New York, she said she’s still a Dreamchasers dancer, performing at events whenever she’s home in Cayman.
Since Dreamchasers commenced in 2017, she has been a dancer with the company, playing roles such as the senior company captain and an instructor for the kids and juniors’ classes before going off to school in 2022. She is currently an assistant to McField, helping with newsletters, social media and costumes.
Davis Quintero began her studies in 2022 at the State University of New York Brockport, where she is a teaching assistant in modern and African dance classes.
Davis Quintero said she loves performing and evoking various sensations from the audience, embracing new styles of dance, trying different techniques and teaching others what she learned.
“I love sharing and teaching my culture to others, especially if it is a new experience for them. But most importantly, I love encouraging the younger generation of beautiful dancers to follow their dreams,” she said.
Davis Quintero, who received a bachelor of fine arts in dance in 2024, said her time in New York has been “full of experience, knowledge and rigorous training” as she has attended numerous conferences, workshops, events, intensives and classes that have exposed her to new aspects of dance that she did not know existed.
Comparing her experiences with dance in Cayman to a city in New York, she said, “The biggest differences for me, would have to be the training and opportunities available.”
Noting the increased intensity of training – from three hours a day, three times a week in Cayman, to eight hours a day, six days a week at university – she said, “my body and mind instantly felt the change”.
This rigorous training, she says, led to a sense of strength and a deeper passion for her craft.
Beyond the physical demands, she found a difference in audience expectations. In Cayman, she said, “I feel as though the audience is not as open-minded to creativity when it is something out of their comfort zone.”
In contrast, she feels US audiences are “a lot more accepting of an artist expressing themselves in their own unique way, even if the art is considered ‘weird’”.
She also thinks the biggest misconception that people have about dance is “simply not knowing if [it] falls into the sport or profession category. I believe it is both,” she said.
Davis Quintero said she sees dance as a sport with “events like battles and competitive dance [where] there are rules and regulations that need to be followed in order to be ranked”, but she acknowledges that dance in a theatrical setting is something else entirely.
She believes that regardless of the side of dance-related jobs that someone falls into – sport or profession – “at the end of the day, dance is an art where all dancers train like athletes.
“We need to be able to maintain things such as our stamina, strength, flexibility and techniques in order to dance professionally,” she said.
Regarding her new role as dance instructor, she said, “Receiving my position at Hochstein made me realise that I had already started the process of accomplishing one of my ultimate goals. I hope to expand on this goal and teach more of what I have learned here … to the very talented and promising youth of Cayman.”
