Ms Jennifer Jackson
Senior Lecturer
Qualifications: MA (Dist) (University of Surrey 1995)
Email: j.jackson@surrey.ac.uk
Phone: Work: 01483 68 6502
Room no: 05 NC 01
Office hours
Drop in hours: Tuesday 4.00-5.00
University days: Tuesdays and Fridays
Further information
Biography
Personal Statement:
Jennifer Jackson teaches choreography and ballet and continues to perform as a dancer. With Susan Crow, she programmes activities presented by the Ballet Independents’ Group (BIG), including the BIG Discussion Forum that debates current issues in ballet practice. She teaches part-time at the Royal Ballet School.
Jennifer was a dancer and choreographer with the Royal and Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet for 15 years and co-founder of Dance Advance in 1988 before going on to direct her own company, VOLTaire. Her choreographies include work for ballet companies, theatre, education and community projects and vocational students.
Research Interests
Her research interests are practice-led in the areas of new choreography and creativity in ballet practice, analysis and ballet pedagogy. Outcomes are pursued in both choreography and writing.
Publications
Refereed Journal Articles:
My dance and the ideal body’ – looking at ballet practice from the inside out. Research in Dance Education, 6.1/2, April/December 2005, pp25-40.
Published conference papers:
Jackson, Jennifer Problems of perception: A Sea of Troubles - Looking at MacMillan’s work from the inside out and the outside in. Revealing MacMillan Conference Papers. London: Royal Academy of Dance, 2004, pp52-60
Papers:
2007:
In the Reveal. The Facility 3, London Metropolitan University.
2006:
Figure of Eight: Moving between the knowledge practices of dancer and choreographer. Dancing in the now: somatic practices in HE, Liverpool JMU.
2005:
New Beauties. PARIP conference, 2005, Bretton Hall, UK.
2004:
The Curious Frontier- ballet as both vocational and academic study. A Moving Landscape: Dance Pedagogy for the 21st Century Conference, Dallas Texas. 16-19 January.
2003:
Problems of perception: A Sea of Troubles - Looking at MacMillan’s work from the inside out and the outside in. Revealing MacMillan Conference Papers. London: Royal Academy of Dance.
2002:
The work and thought of William Forsythe - re-presenting the balletic text. Body, Thought and Dance Conference. The House of Culture, Stockholm.
Teaching
BA (Hons) Dance and Culture programme:
Course convenor:
- HE1 Introduction to Choreographic Analysis
- HE2 Ballet
- HE3 Ballet
Contributor to:
- HE1 Cultural Approaches to Theatre, Vernacular and Media Dance, Arts and Society
- HE2 Independent Project
MA Dance Cultures, Histories and Practices programme:
Course convenor:
- Post Classical Forms
Contributor to:
- Theories of Embodiment
- Performing Theories
Departmental Duties
University of Surrey Committees:
Performances
In the reveal
Date: | 14 April 2007, 2 May 2007, May 25 2007, 29 September |
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Venues: | London Metropolitan University, University of Surrey, Pembroke House London SE17, Holy Trinity Church London SW13 |
Duration: | 25 minutes |
Music: | New composition by Shima Kobayashi, additional music by Bach and Purcell |
Funding: | The Facility 3, London Metropolitan University |
Performers: | Ann Dickie, Susie Crow, Bethany Elliott, Jennifer Jackson, Rym Kechacha |
Choreographic research focussed on interrogating the notion that the dancer’s somatic experience and memory are tied to a material sense of place and that choreographic forms and gestures, as structures in space, are available for re-invention. The choreography drew on both personal and shared dance ‘histories’ and was presented in three dimensional performance space.
Unwrapped
Date: | 11 and 12 November 2006 |
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Venues: | The Music Room, South Molton Street, London W1 |
Duration: | 24 minutes |
Music: | New composition by Shima Kobayashi; songs by Purcell, Hawkins |
Funding: | Atelier; London Ballet Circle |
Performers: | Ann Dickie, Bethany Elliot, Rym Kechacha, Shima Kobayashi |
Unwrapped interrogates the relationship of personal and shared ballet ‘histories’. The choreography - for a musician and 3 dancers aged between 60 and 17 - integrates solo material developed by the dancers, movement ‘chorus’ and theatrical ritual that references narrative and gesture from the Romantic Ballet and the particular context of the Giselle.
Retrieving the Sylph
Date: | 2005 |
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Venues: |
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Duration: | 10 minutes |
Music: | ‘Northern Sky: 7 musical moments on the Pleiades’ from Starry Sky Cycle by Urmass Sissask |
Funding: | Gotland International Dance Seminar |
Performers: | Jenny Nilson (Principal Dancer Royal Swedish Ballet); Stefan Mattsson and Janna Sarkisova (piano) |
Review: | http://arts.guardian.co.uk/reviews/story/0,11712,1580393,00.html |
A work for solo female or male dancer that re-examines material and ideas from C19 Romantic Ballet and the dialogue between the individual artist and her discipline.
Urmas Sisask’s Starry Sky Cycle, a series of piano pieces inspired by the constellations. A note to the score wishes the “reader many delicious findings on the wonders and wierdnesses of our world”. The choreography explores notions of the 'other' and the Romantic Ballet ‘Sylph’.
Raft of Reasons
Date: | April-May 2004 and March-May 2005 |
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Venues: | Purcell Room, London and National Tour, with From Here to Maturity dance company |
Choreography | Matthew Hawkins |
Review: | http://www.ballet-dance.com/200406/articles/Maturity20040428.html |
Participation as a contributing dancer in the creative development and performance of twenty-minute duet with Matthew Hawkins.
Columbine
Date: | July 2003 |
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Venue: | Royal Opera House and Linbury Theatre, London |
Duration: | 20 minutes |
Music: | French Suite no. 5. by JS Bach |
Funding: | Royal Ballet School |
Performers: | Students of Royal Ballet School |
Revival of ballet, originally conceived for open air performance at Holland Park in 1996, reworked for presentation in traditional theatre setting. The work is created for 25 students of the Royal Ballet School aged between 13 and16 and explores numerical and geometric relationships suggested by the number five, Bach’s music, mathematical order and harmony. In the overall structure of the work, the dancers are organised in groups of rising uneven numbers to reflect a traditional pyramid structure (1, 3, 5, 7, 9 = 25), the choreography exploits the magic square and the 5 ballet positions as a structuring device, the total number 25 is a division of 5 x 5, the music selected is Bach’s French Suite number five; the title evokes a character from theatrical past and also the five petaled flower Aqualegia, whose common name is Columbine.
Spin
Guildford International Music Festival
Date: | March 2003 |
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Venue: | Music Studio, PATS Building, University of Surrey |
Duration: | 24 minutes |
Video Artist: | Deveril |
Music and dance collaborators: | Tom Armstrong, Stephen Goss, Noni Jenkyn-Jones |
Performers: | Tom Armstrong, Stewart Fenwick, Stephen Goss, Jennifer Jackson, Noni Jenkyn-Jones, Amina Khayam, Jonathan Mayer, Jenny Tattersall |
Three performances – each house seated a maximum of 40 people. A cross cultural music and dance research project that explored composed and improvised material from the distinct traditions of dance (kathak, tabla and ballet) and music in a site specific performance.
Committees and Consultancy :
2001:
Transference - Ballet Independents’ Group (BIG) and Black Choreographic Initiative (BCI) cross cultural music and dance research weekend and sharing, Clore Studio, ROH
Ballet Independents’ Group (BIG) Discussion Forum. Programmed in partnership with Susan Crow, the BIG Forum invites speakers to debate current issues in ballet practice for audience of dance practitioners.
Key topics:
- Trends and Traditions (2007)
- Touchy Subject (2006)
- Keeping Youth Dance on its Toes (2005)
- Tits and Trix- Ballet for Sale (2004)
- Ballet and Technologies – unravelling the cyberbabel (2003)
- Nurturing Creativity - institutions and independent artists (2003)
- State of the art (2002), Ballet - vocational and academic (2002)
- Invisible Women (2002)
- Men in tights (2001)
- Ballet Body Image (2001)
Funded by Arts Council England, London (Dance Fund from 2000-2004)
Transcripts are lodged with the National Resource Centre for Dance (NRCD, University of Surrey)
BIG website address: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/NRCD/BIG.htm.
Professional Associations:
Active involvement:
2002- date
Advisory Board of the British Ballet Organisation
