about

A SHORT BIO

Jessie Young is a dancer and choreographer from Port Angeles, WA, now based in NYC. She creates movement-based work that explores themes of memory, landscape, and how personal stories live in the body. Recent projects include Sick Sad World, a theater-dance collaboration with Iris McCloughan that combines storytelling and movement; Teeth, which examines shifts in scale and tempo in relation to the environment; and le sigh, a piece focused on layered, intense movement prompts. Jessie teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, is on faculty at the American Dance Festival, and is currently working on a new project with collaborators in NYC.

A LONGER BIO

Jessie Young is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher from Port Angeles, WA, now based in NYC. Her work investigates memory, landscape, and personal history within the body, creating space for both physical and narrative exploration. Recent works include Teeth, a group piece examining scale and tempo in immersive settings; le sigh, a solo exploring layered, rigorous movement; Sick Sad World, a duet with Iris McCloughan that merges storytelling with physical intensity; and Smoke not Fog, a solo study on spinal articulation and grounded movement that channels resilience and adaptation into visceral, atmospheric expression.

Her work has been presented in NYC at The Chocolate Factory, Danspace Project, Dixon Place, Center for Performance Research, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and as part of AUNTS, which she co-curated in 2021. In Chicago, her work has been shown at Links Hall, The Athenaeum Theatre, The Viaduct, and The Den Theater, presented by The Inconvenience and Chicago Dance Crash. Jessie has also performed with Chicago-based companies Khecari, The Seldoms, and The Moving Architects, and was a featured artist at Centrum in Port Townsend, WA, engaging with an arts community that continues to shape her work.

Jessie has performed with artists such as Cynthia Oliver (currently in process), Tere O’Connor, Abby Zbikowski, Julie Mayo, Beth Gill, Stephanie Acosta, and Same As Sister. Her residency experience includes Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Center for Performance Research, New York Live Arts, and Brooklyn Studios for Dance, where she has furthered her experimental and collaborative approaches.

As an educator, Jessie has been a guest faculty at Sarah Lawrence College and Rutgers University and is currently on the faculty of the American Dance Festival, where she encourages students to explore movement as a site of curiosity and creation. Her awards include the Beverly Blossom/Carey Erickson Alumni Award, a Mertz Gilmore Foundation stipend, and the Vannie L. Sheiry Memorial Dance Scholarship. Jessie holds an MFA in Dance and Choreography from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a BFA from the University of Utah, and certifications in BASI Pilates and 500-hour yoga. Committed to movement-centered research, Jessie engages the physical and emotional landscapes of both dancers and audiences.