Joee Schapiro

Joee Schapiro has been teaching in the Houston area for the past 33 years. She is an active member of both Dance Masters of America (25 years) and the South Texas Association of Dance Teachers and a former regional director of The League for the Betterment of Dance Education and Dance Educators of America. Miss Schapiro is one of only 35 teachers in the United States that is nationally recognized to
give DMA certification exams in Classical Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Modern and Ball Room.

Miss Schapiro began her dance education when she was five years old and had continued taking classes throughout her professional and teaching career. She has performed in summer stock productions, beginning with Edgar Bergin in “You Can’t Take it With You”, and continuing with such shows as “God Bless Our Bank” with Ann Southern, “Carnival” with Maria Allbergetti, and “Paint Your Wagon” with Montgomery Cliff.

She played Gloria in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, and has had major speaking roles in “Ask Any Girl”, “The Lark”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Knute Rocknie”. Miss Schapiro was featured as a principle dancer in such musicals as “Brigadoon”, “Lil Abner”, “Bye Bye Birdie”, “Carnival”, and
featured dancer with the Tri-Cities Opera Company in New York and danced in the movie “Urban Cowboy”.

Among the musicals she has choreographed, both in Houston and New York, are “Oliver”, “Brigadoon”, “Lil Abner”, “Bye Bye Birdie” and “Les Miserables”. Miss Schapiro actually began her professional career at 11 years old when she was accepted in the New York Rep Company and hosted her own TV show that featured Elementary School activities. At 9 years of age she auditioned for the original Mickey Mouse Club and a cute girl with dark curly hair got her spot. At the age of 18, she toured with several nightclub shows in New York and in Las Vegas where she danced adagio with her partner Collie Valdez.

She has attended the University of Houston (main campus) as a theatrical set design and lighting major under the direction of Lee Watson: president of the International Lighting Design Union and the (Clear Lake campus) as a dance major. The semester before she was to leave for New York City to sit for her Union Exams, she met Patsy Swayze and found the teacher that changed her life and encouraged her to become a teacher.

Miss Schapiro has taught on several national faculties and for Dance Masters of America. She has judged dance competitions for American Showcase, Rainbow Connection, and IDC. Her students have won many Regional and National Competition titles. Her students Mandy Dalton and Susan Collins hold the unsurpassed record for “Under Ice”, a modern duet that was awarded 11 PERFECT scores.

The highlight of her teaching career came in the summer of 1982, when she taught American Jazz and Tap at the Cinema de Vicorine, in Nice, France. She is very proud of the fact that many of her students have gone on to professional careers in dance in New York, Las Vegas, Dallas, Atlantic City, Italy and Canada.

Competition motto
No one’s self worth is determined by a trophy, but by the challenge of
striving to give 110% of your best effort.

Cypress Dance Studio

Dance Lessons in Cypress, Texas
Cypress Dance Lessons