Cassidy Doan
Cassidy Doan, age seventeen, aspires to become the first Vietnamese-American professional ballerina. Her love for the art of ballet began at an early age, starting her very first ballet class when she was only three years old. The high demand for athleticism and dedication within the art form has taught Cassidy to embody a strong work ethic from a young age. With her determined personality, her hopes of becoming an active promoter of the arts with the online community have thrived.
Cassidy's passion for dance began at the age of three when she took her first ballet class at Southland Ballet Academy, under the guidance of Salwa Rizkalla and Hanna Karacic. Since then, Cassidy has had the privilege to be mentored by many notable ballet professionals including Claudio Muñoz, Larissa Saveliev, Christopher Powney, Lauren Anderson, and others. Cassidy has been dancing for a total of fourteen years thus far and started her professional dance career when she was only twelve. Her extensive background in dance also now includes pointe, contemporary, modern, jazz, nutrition, gyro, and more.
Cassidy has been extremely fortunate to train at some of the most prestigious ballet schools in the nation. These academies have provided Cassidy a variety of technical and artistic knowledge of dance to grow her reputation, social platform, repertory, and resume as an emerging artist.
For this emerging artist, performing is more than a hobby or profession, it's also a medium of expression. When the lights go up, Cassidy's smile brings the stage to life in every performance. Many people give praise to Cassidy because she has dedicated a lifetime of passion, talent, and hardworking to this rare form of art. When she performs, she offers her exquisite grace and promising technique on- and off-stage. Cassidy has always left an impactful impression behind and built long-term relationships with her audiences, as she's been continuing to expand her ballet repertoire. Over the years, Cassidy has had the opportunity to dance a wide variety of productions with Festival Ballet Theatre and Houston Ballet. She has performed lead roles such as Clara in The Nutcracker, and more solos in Don Quixote, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, and other productions.
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In 2018, Cassidy was awarded second place in the classical ballet division at Youth American Grand Prix in Los Angeles, the world's largest global competition for dance. YAGP then invited Cassidy to participate in the New York Finals, where all of the world's most promising dancers came to compete for professional opportunities from dance companies around the globe. Cassidy was the youngest in her age division, at the age of only fifteen, and danced against older dancers up to the age of nineteen. Her determination and hard work paid off when she met with Houston Ballet II's artistic director, Claudio Munoz, about a scholarship opportunity to train in the academy's professional division. Cassidy was one out of only two dancers to receive a full scholarship from Houston Ballet Academy for their year-round program.
Only at the age of fifteen --- Cassidy moved away from her home independently to pursue her dreams and to train as a professional dancer in Houston, Texas. She had to sacrifice her 'normal' life as an ordinary teenager to attend Houston Ballet Academy's professional year-round program. Cassidy's daily routine consisted of intense ballet classes six days a week, from 9 am to 4 pm, and online school until late at night every day. As Cassidy juggled between dancing all day, maintaining her academic reputation, finding time to balance out a social life -- ballet has taught her to be responsible and develop great time management. Even though her rigorous schedule required a great deal of maturity from a young age, Cassidy thrived during her experience in Houston and as a dancer in general. She is humbled by the abundance of opportunities that ballet has presented to her, and she still seeks to master the art of dance to this day. Cassidy is currently at home with her family in Southern California attending her local high school and getting ready for college.
