Who I am.
Jess Roseman (she/her) is an interdisciplinary choreographer and movement educator who draws upon a half century of experience. She designs movement experiences for performance and for wellness purposes. Her work empowers people towards richly embodied living.
Jessica creates interdisciplinary performances and community based movement projects to help people sense, feel, and move better. Jess’ solo choreography reveals unspoken truths about mothering, ancestry, and wellbeing to encourage empathy with her audience. Excited and confounded by physical challenges, she reveals untold stories to make meaningful movement for a maturing body. In her work, she incorporates techniques from her vocations as a Feldenkrais Practitioner, Gyrotonic Instructor, and licensed massage therapist.
Jess’ award winning, multi-year public restorative practice NOURISH is a ‘soul care toolkit,’ providing a social service for collective wellbeing. NOURISH provides deep physical connection to ourselves, each other, and our environment by recognizing and choosing what we need in the moment. A MASS MoCA Residency Fellowship supports her development of an immersive, interactive NOURISH installation which gently bridges the gaps between public performance and personal experience; active dancer and “passive” audience; movement and visual art. She is honored to contribute two chapters about her NOURISH projects for publications in 2025.
Jessica lives in unceded territory of the Massachusett & Pawtucket people known as Lexington, MA with her twin teens. She was appointed to NEFA’s Regional Dance Development Initiative (RDDI) cohort. She is Co-Curator for The Dance Complex’ annual programming of workshops, lectures, and performances. She was the inaugural Artist in Residence at Lexington Community Farm, and at Cambridge Community Foundation’s Arrow Street Arts, and has held residencies at Arrow Street Arts, Subcircle, Beanstow, and Atlantic Center for the Arts. Jessica has worked with Now + There, DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park, Monkeyhouse, Miami Light Project, Movement Research, The Field, Global Arts Live & ICA Boston, among others. She is proud to serve as mentor for the Asian American Ballet Project and North American Choreographers Month (NACHMO) Boston, and advisor for Forecast Public Arts’ Making it Public and the Dance Complex’ aMaSSiT programs for developing artists. A New England States Touring Artist, she performs, teaches, mentors, and lectures nationally. Jess is a PhD student in Northeastern University’s Interdisciplinary Design and Media program, researching the intersection of dance and public health.
What I do.
Sensing and expressing the right action for the moment is my process in my parenting, bodywork practice, my healing, and in choreographing. I’ve trained extensively in therapeutic massage and the Feldenkrais Method to pinpoint people’s structural and functional imbalances. I do the same in dance: I hone in and reveal the invisible tensions of our colonized culture.
I believe physical expression is universal. My dances aim to instill equality through movement. My newest project generates movement from interviews with non-dancers, Black mothers, to choreograph self care for racial justice. My dances acknowledge our senses. I’ve incorporated props like a mountain of wiggly Jell-o, and offered the audience cupcakes or smelling canisters to encourage sensory awareness as I performed. I create interactive experiences in nontraditional spaces (examples include my artist residency at a community farm, rehearsing over Zoom in bed, and improvising dances in public parks). I’ve choreographed with solo musicians, live DJ’s and jazz bands. I’ve improvised in dances about the Declaration of Independence, farting, and love.
Personally, choreographing is an act of defiance and self determination from the trauma I experienced when birthing my stillborn first child. During that time, I learned how to reclaim my life force by working through grief to re-embody creativity. When choreographing, I examine how emotions are stored within the body. I place my body into situations that demand a solution, then render clear forms out of what develops.
I’m excited and confounded by physical challenges, impossible dances, and embracing the awkward. I’m interested in how the body resonates to specific sound vibrations.
I’m inspired to make meaningful movement for my maturing body and to resource our inner well-being.