Jessica Denson is a DC-based, interdisciplinary performing artist, arts administrator, educator, and community organizer. She first joined Dance/USA as a Research Associate in 2017, then helped build the 2018 Los Angeles and 2019 Cleveland Annual Conferences, and is now the Office Manager and Board Liaison.
She is a local Fieldwork facilitator, co-organizer of the Women Dance Artists of Color-DMV, and a teaching artist at Sitar Arts Center. Previously, she was a House Manager at Blues Alley Supper Club for nearly a decade and, prior to that, she worked in academic administration and finance. Performance and design experience includes: Gesel Mason Performance Projects, Krystal Collins/New Growth Collective, Contradiction Dance Theatre, Victor Provost, MK Abadoo, HollyBass360, darlingdance, sculptor/performance artist Nick Cave, Lesole’s Dance Project, and various other projects. She credits her first teacher, Alison Miller of the Ballet Academy, for inspiring her lifelong commitment to dance.
Jessica is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park with a BA in Dance and The George Washington University with an MFA in Dance (2017 Maida Withers Impact Award). From her graduate research, she created and co-developed the workshop, State:Trait – Supporting Compassion for Mental Health through Community-Based Somatic & Movement Explorations, with Shatiea Blount (LCSW-C, LICSW, CPC) which was presented at Loyola University-Maryland’s “Shades of Resilience: Mental Health in Communities of Color Conference (2018),” twice at the DC Coalition for the Homeless, and Hillcrest Children and Family Center. She is currently on faculty in the Department of Theatre and Dance at The George Washington University.
Image Description: a woman with medium-golden complexion, chin-length dark curly hair, and dark eyes, wearing a fuchsia top and striped pink and fuchsia scarf, faces the camera in front of a white background.
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