CURLED UP IN AN ARMCHAIR
at her home near Kitchener, Cassandra Caccioppoli is about as far away from the pulsating stage of pop icon Janet Jackson’s Unbreakable world tour as one can get.
If you didn’t know her, you wouldn’t guess that a few days earlier, the 22-year-old professional dancer had danced right beside Jackson in front of 16,000 screaming fans at the superstar’s September concert at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.
Caccioppoli, a five-foot-tall, blond, hazeleyed dynamo, is full of surprises.
Not only did she dance, she helped select and choreograph the other 35 local dancers — including her dancer sister Victoria Caccioppoli — who shared the stage with Jackson in the finale number. Her family and boyfriend cheered in the audience.
“To dance beside her (Jackson) is insane,” says Caccioppoli, interviewed at her spacious home in Mannheim — complete with dance studio — that she shares with her mother Mary, father Carmine, co-owner of Vincenzo’s specialty food store in Waterloo, and sister Victoria, 18.
“Every dancer’s dream is to dance for Janet ... she treats dancers like they are the artists. They aren’t just background. They are a