Who I am.
Jessica Roseman is a single mother, artist, and advocate for Black maternal and community health. Her choreography and community-based projects empower people to sense, feel, and move better. Jessica creates opportunities to recognize our individuality within a connected and diverse world. Her multiyear NOURISH Project invites embodiment in relationship to what feeds us: the environment, experience, communication, and memory.
Jess’ work is informed by Black dance techniques of the diaspora, improvisational forms, Neuromuscular Therapy, The GYROTONIC® Method and The Feldenkrais Method. Jess’ solo dances play with the tension, ever present in her homeland of New England (land of monosyllabic conversations and dramatic weather), between stoicism and expressiveness.
NOURISH has been funded by NEFA’s Public Art for Spatial Justice, Cambridge Arts for Social Justice, and Cambridge Arts for Racial Justice grants, among others. Jess was appointed to NEFA’s Regional Dance Development Initiative (RDDI) cohort to build sustainable choreographic landscapes in New England. She is an Artist in Residence at Lexington Community Farm, The Dance Complex at Canal, and Somerville’s Art Assembled. Jess most recently partnered in projects with PAO Arts Center, Bearnstow, Engine, and the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. A New England States Touring Artist, Jessica performs, teaches, mentors, and lectures nationally.
“my existence is an endeavor to embody justice”
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.