Daina Shukis received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Dance/Drama from New York University as well as studying voice and specialized in writing her own musical and vocal accompaniment for her choreography. As a dance accompanist at Skidmore College, Daina choreographed and wrote music for their dance group which she brought to her Alma Mater Emma Willard School. She directed the production of the William Butler Yeats play "At the Hawks Well" at Skidmore, where she met Don Alias, Gene Perla and Jeremy Steig when they performed with Elvin Jones at a concert. These friendships lasted many years and their support of her music and dancing career resulted in the albums and videos presented on this website.
You may remember Stuart Klines View of Culture in his New York City News cast. Daina can be seen dancing at the Port Said where she was house dancer for many years. Prior she danced at the Egyptian Gardens and later other notable clubs in the New York area as well as Ft. Lauderdale and the West Coast. These clubs brought the best musicians from the Middle East to perform in New York and her love of Greek, Turkish and Arabic music shows in some of her writing and performances. She also had a great love for the art of ballet and took class regularly at the American Ballet Center in New York City and studied with Mellisa Hayden, Ola Fatum and Elizabeth Carrol at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. She studied Baharata Natyam with Sukanya the daughter of the famed Indian dancer Indrani, and Modern dance with Paul Sanasardo, Arlene Laube and Stuart Hodes. Her choreographic piece danced to her own music and the improvisation of Jeremy Steig and Eddie Gomez, "Tlalocs Forest, Cocoon into Butterfly" was shown on cable TV on occasion.
Daina has sung for "Sesame Street" animations for children's television and performed for many years with her own band "Daina and the Tribe" in the New York City area at such notable clubs as the Bottom Line (opening for James Cotton), The Lone Star (opening for Jaco Pastorious), CBGB's and many others. She was assaulted and severely injured and was not able to continue her career. She is still composing and has had some of these vintage tapes engineered to be presented at this time. More to come. I have a publishing contract with CDbaby and 3 albums out on ITunes and Amazon currently, look for Daina and the Tribe
Daina Shukis in artist spotlight for IMA awards, BFA NYU Dance accompanist at Skidmore College, sang for Sesame Street , Bottom Line, Lone Star CBGB's .
