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Katina Shields
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Katina Shields started folk dancing in high school when she saw how much fun her mother (folk dance leader and teacher Diki Shields) was having with the Riverside (California) Folk Dancers. She has performed with the Parthenon Dance Troupe on the island of Crete, the Dora Stratou Theatre, the national folk dance company of Greece, in Athens, and the AVAZ International Dance Theatre of Los Angeles, California.
Katina has danced and taught at many of the folk dance cafes in the Los Angeles, California, area, including Calliópe's, The Intersection, Veselo Selo, and Zorbas.
In Europe, she was a dance member of the Dora Stratou Dance Theatre, Parthenon Dance Ensemble, and Iraklia Folklore Group on the island of Crete. While serving on the Committee on Folk Dance for the Western Diocese of the Greek Orthodox Church of America, Katina greatly influenced the Greek folk dancing in Oregon, California, and Colorado through numerous workshops, programs, and recreational activities.
She has served as a teaching assistant and lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and has taught dance at folk dance camps, such as Holiday Camp, throughout the western United States. As a teacher and lecturer, she has expressed to an unusual degree the creative aspects of ethnic arts and dance.
As a choreographer, Katina did the choreography for the United Artists film The Longriders, a movie about the infamous James brothers. The dance scene, which took place at a wedding, included clogging and buck dancing.
Dances Katina has taught include Buck Dancin', Clogging (including Boogie Fever, Boogie Grass Band, Le Freak, MacNamara's Band, and Night Fever), Hasapikos, Hasaposervikos, Kastrinos, Kotchari, Kritiko Syrto, Miteritsa, Moustambeikos, Nizamikos, Omal Dipat, Omal Karasoundeikos, Pentozali, Zagorisios, and Zonaradikos.