Jennifer Essex
DANCER & DANCEMAKER
Innovative movement for film, theatre, outdoor, interactive, and site-specific works.
NEWS
December 2020
How Long is a Piece of String at Dance City
This summer I was commissioned by Dance City and supported by Arts Council England to start working on a new interactive dance theatre show for children and families called How Long is a Piece of String. You can see a snipet of our sharing as part of Dance Edits HERE
June 2019
Once Upon a Wall on tour!
My new show with Fully Booked Theatre, Once Upon a Wall is touring the UK this summer supported by Middlesbrough Council, Stockton International Riverside Festival and Arts Council England. It's interactive with lots of opportunities for children and brave adults to get involved in the action of building a giant wall and trying to put Humpty together again. Full tour dates or the Fully Booked website: www.fullybookedtheatre.com
January 2019
New show with Fully Booked Theatre!
I'm so thrilled to have received funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England to create a new work for children: Once Upon a Wall. Watch this space!!
December 2018
Winnipeg Workshops
I finally returned to Winnipeg this winter to teach two days of workshops with Young Lungs Dance Exchange. It was wonderful to meet a new generation of incredible prairie artists and great to be able to work at Videopool - such a cool space! Thank you to Delf Gravert for the photos!
NEW SHOW PREMIERS AT WINTERTIDE FESTIVAL
I'm beyond thrilled to be creating a new walk-about piece for Wintertide Festival! Bundle up warm and come see!
NEW SHOW WITH TMESIS THEATRE
Over the past few months I've been working with Tmesis Theatre on their new show Beyond Belief. It premieres this autumn at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool. Check out some of Andrew Ness' photos of the R&D and watch the TRAILER
OUT OF THIS WORLD WORKSHOPS
This week the Space Rebel Princess team headed to Middlesbrough Library to deliver some out of this world dance and poetry workshops. We worked with a fantastic bunch of year two students. Check out all the fun in this video:
SPACE REBEL PRINCESS
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It's Space Rebel Princess, flying through the skies to a library or festival near you! This new show, commissioned by Middlesbrough Council is a collaboration between myself and poet Harry Man. Designed as an interactive show for children and families, it tells the story of a princess raised for royalty but not for rocketry, who dreams of becoming an astronaut. Come see us at Middlesbrough Library or book us for your school, library, or venue!
REPLICAS
This summer I worked with six fantastic dancers on REPLICAS, a new digitally interactive dance work. REPLICAS premiered at Stockton International Riverside Festival and we held a special secret show August 15th for thirty lucky people at the Middlesbrough institute of Modern Art.
Photos by Phil Hill
THE BENCH
This year I was one of five women selected from across the UK to be a BENCh fellow. The programme provided bespoke mentorship and training for the development of my choreographic voice. WATCH
May 20th - July 19th, 2015
MAX MARA ART PRIZE FOR WOMEN
It's been a great pleasure to work with award-winning artist Corin Sworn on her exhibition for the Whitechapel Gallery. The work is inspired by the characters and tales of mistaken identity from the Italian Commedia dell’Arte theatre. I worked with two amazing acrobats in Edinburgh, choreographing the films that accompany the installation. It got an excellent review in the guardian which you can read here.
April + May 2015
BEAUTIFUL PRECISION
I have spent the last month rolling out of vehicles, bowing in extreme precision, and avoiding being hit by a very beautiful new Honda all under the excellent direction of This Girl Can Director Kim Gehrig and choreographer extraordinaire Supple Nam. It was so fun to work on this commercial and I can't wait to see it this autumn!
January 28th-February 27th, 2015 THAT'S AMORE WITH TMESIS
I'm thrilled to be working with Tmesis Theatre again in the new year, developing and touring That's Amore, a "hilarious, fast-paced, passionate and poignant piece of physical theatre which explores the vast world and culture of romantic love..."
December 6th, 2014 MISS-FITS CABARET
I've spent the past 7 weeks at the University of Cumbria working on a new show based on a 1930s cabaret. The students were fantastic, devising a host of magical and horrible characters. We had a three-night run at Stanwix Theatre to very enthusiatic crowds.
Decemebr 4th, 2014 HATCH & SCRATCH AT PAVILION DANCE
The company was incredibly excited to head to Pavilion Dance in Decemeber to hatch Distance Duet. We shared a bill with some incredible artists and left feeling very inspired. It was great to be able to talk to audiences about how they felt about leaving their phones on in the theatre, distraction, and finding out aboutthe secret lives of the characters onstage.
October 6th, 2014 MUSEUM OF LANCASHIRE
From October 9th to Decmeber 6th I will be screening the two films I created during my time as Artist in Residence with Age Concern Central Lancashire. The films were developed out of interviews with people living with dementia. They feature dancers Harriet Bone and Yiannis Tsigkris, with a score by Portia Graves and filmmaking by Jack Ayers.
July 21st, 2014 DANCE CITY RESIDENCY
We spent a fantastic week in residence at Dance City developing Distance Duet. We experiemented with the fragmentation of text and the misunderstandings inherent in this mode of communication. Thanks to N and C for their messages - they even live texted the birth of a child! See the film by Lydia O'Hara HERE. Can't wait to get back to work next w
JULY 14th 2014 PAVILION DANCE RESIDENCY
Had a really inspiring first week of R&D for Distance Duet at Pavilion Dance. Thanks to C and S for their text messages! We've started to research how personalities come across through text versus how we can represent them physically, what social dynamics are at play and how we can use text messaging in live performance. Gearing up for week two at Dance City!
JUNE 21 GREENWICH AND DOCKLANDS FESTIVAL
On the 21st of June at 10pm we'll be performing SAFE HOUSE at the Greenwich and D0cklands Festival! Head over to their WEBSITE for full information.
MARCH 6 - VOTING GOES LIVE
Very excited to have been shortlisted for the RESPOND commission with Yorkshire Dance. Two commissions will be awarded by public vote. Cast yours here: http://www.respondto.org/
RESPOND is a new digital adaptation of Liz Lerman’s renowned Critical Response Process which will enable participants (you) to interact directly with artists, share your feedback with them as they show you works-in-progress, explore your reactions to artistic ideas and exchange your ideas with others on the site.
MAY 17 - SAFE HOUSE
I'm thrilled to be performing in SAFE HOUSE alongside the amazing aerialists from Wired in a fabulous new outdoor touring production this summer. It's FREE! Hope to see you there! See the review of our premiere in Brighton HERE
Jun-Aug
Jun- Sep
Once Upon a Wall
I'm performing in Fully Booked Theatre's Once Upon a Wall at festivals across the UK. Full times and dates HERE
Space Rebel Princess
I'm performing in Fully Booked Theatre's Space Rebel Princess at festivals across the UK. Full times and dates HERE
JANUARY 28 - FEBRUARY 15 TMESIS
Can't wait to head up to Liverpool next week to work with the wonderful Tmesis on R&D for their new piece. The company have developed a strong reputation nationally and internationally for their innovative, groundbreaking, visually stunning, and thought provoking physical theatre work.
NOVEMBER 4 RETURN
I've been up in Carlisle for the past 5 weeks working on a new production with their 2nd year students. I can't wait for the premiere next week on the 12th, 13th, and 14th of November at Stanwix Theatre. See a little preview here
OCTOBER 25 PHOTO SHOOT
It was absolutely wonderful to work with Maya Almeida on this underwater photo shoot. See more of her images at www.mayaalmeida.com
OCTOBER 7 - 26 DORIAN GRAY
I'm very excited to be performing in and choreographing Dorian Gray this autumn with exciting new production company Poise Performance. The immersive production runs at the Bussey Building until October 26th. "The movement sequences and choreography were the strongest features of the production and some of the most creative I have ever seen." -Everything Theatre.
AUGUST 27 - 31 HANDEL FURIOSO
I'm thrilled to be choreographing Isle of Noise's new opera Directed by Max Hoehn. It will premiere at the Arcola at the end of August before going on a UK tour. Please visit their website for more information.
AUG 23 TISSU DE FEMMES
Tissu de Femmes, the new dance film I choreographed with American Director Ron Hagell premiers August 23rd at Marine Studios in Margate. For many years Ron was a producer/director with PBS, the American public television network, and a manager at Lifetime Television, based in New York. He has since moved on to work in dance film, among other things. It was a real pleasure to work with him last week and with the wonderful dancer Sophia Pintzou.
JULY 13 SATYRICON
Very excited that Satyricon has been invited to perfom at Platform @ Tynemouth Station as part of the Mouth of the Tyne Festival this summer. We'll be joining the wonderful Candoco Dance Company on the outdoor stage. We'll also be doing a free preview performance at The Albert in London on the 5th of July at 7pm.
JULY 7 OLIVER
I had awonderful time visiting the Cote D'Azur this July to choreograph Oliver for Beauville Arts. Amazing young performers and a beautiful place!
JUNE 8 FLASHMOB
I'm currently working with Transported to create a series of pop-up dance events across Boston and South Holland. The first one took Boston by storm on the 18th of May and was front page news! Check out this video we made of the event in Spalding which includes convincing an ice cream van driver to let us dance inside the van!
MAY 16 - 28 CANNES
Two Dancers, the film I choreographed this summer starring Carl Barat (of the Libertines) and Dienke Rozendom, will be screening in the short film corner of the Cannes Festival from the 16th to 28th of May. Very exciting news for the film, which was also an official selection of the LIFT and East London Film Festival! If you don't happen to be in France you can see the film when it screens as part of the East London Film Festival June 29th
APRIL 30th WHERE THE HEART IS
It's been absolutely fascinating to begin work on my 20 week residency with Where the Heart Is. The project investigates ideas of home for people who have dementia. More here. Listen to an interview about the project here.
