Laurel Shastri

A lifelong love of learning, science, and dance coalesced when Laurel Shastri (MS in Geology) became a teaching artist twenty-five years ago. Her creative mission to integrate dance authentically yielded a number of unique units, including ‘The Scientific Dancer’, ‘Meaningful Movement’, and ‘DANCE as ACTIVism.’ Her work is featured in the college text ‘Creating Meaning Through Literature and the Arts,’ by Claudia Cornett. She inspired thousands of students through Arts Council Santa Cruz County Artist-Teacher Partnership, Montalvo Teaching Artist Program, and Tennessee Art Commission arts education programs and was honored to receive Ballet Tennessee’s Dance Alive Legacy Award. She has led interactive, well-received workshops for educators in Tennessee, Florida, and California. She is a dancer with MoveSpeakSpin directed by her husband, mathematician and choreographer, Karl Schaffer. His influence and love of math inspires her to create mathematical artwork using textiles, an avocation she enjoys when not dancing. Two of her creations (Octonion in 2023, The Story of How We Met, and Look! Pretty Buttons! in 2024) first displayed in the Bridges Exhibition of Mathematical Art, Craft, and Design.