Jessica Bailey '19

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Jessica Bailey ‘19

Tags: Arts Administrator, Choreographer, Dancer, N/A, Arts Supporter, Dance/Movement Therapist

Me in 50 words or less: Jessica Pearl Asteria Bailey is a Registered Dance/Movement Therapist (R-DMT) and movement artist born and raised on the Westside of Chicago. Her dance background is rooted in African American social dance, hip-hop, and musical theater. She graduated from Princeton University in 2019, where she majored in Sociology and received certificates in African American Studies and Musical Theater. She recently graduated from Antioch University New England, where she received her Master of Arts in Dance Movement Therapy: Couple and Family Therapy.

Pronouns: She/They

Department: Sociology

Certificate(s): African American Studies, Music Theater

Student Group(s): BodyHype, PUP, Blasé, Dorobucci, Princeton University Players, Chapel Choir

Bio:

She has been an artist and arts administrator since she was a student at Princeton, where she held key leadership roles in BodyHype Dance Company. Throughout her career, she has exhibited a passion for working with artists and arts organizations to address the unique challenges they face from a systems perspective. After graduating from Princeton, Jessica was a Museum Voices intern at the Princeton University Art Museum, working under Cara Bramson to create programs to engage attendees. This love for cultivating programs grew into her next role as the inaugural Arts Program Coordinator in Princeton’s Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students. As the ODUS Arts Program Coordinator, she advised, advocated, and created programs for student arts groups.

After transitioning from ODUS, Jessica decided to take a year for herself to pursue her artistic interests. Within this year, she rigorously trained in both dance and aerial arts. She performed in the 2022 Chicago Aerial and Performing Arts Festival with the BIPOC Circus Alliance Midwest and was able to join Red Clay Dance Company, performing in their original work, “Rest.Rise.Move.Nourish.Heal”

When she moved to the Bay Area in 2023, Jessica returned to arts administration as the Artist-in-Residence (AiR) Program Manager at Zaccho Dance Theater, a site-specific aerial dance company founded and directed by Joanna Haigood. In this position, she managed the Black Futures AiR Fellowship, a fully subsidized residency program hosted at Zaccho Studio for emerging and mid-career Black performing artists in the fields of dance, aerial arts, and theater who are working at the intersection of art and social change.

Currently, she leverages her experience as both an arts administrator and an R-DMT in her role as Curriculum Manager for Project Commotion, an organization that promotes healthy development in children of all abilities through purposeful movement, play, and family and community relationships.

Artist Statement

My body often moves in ways that I do not remember learning in this lifetime. I am a channel whose purpose is to allow the embodied memory of my ancestors both chosen and blood-related to be expressed in this lifetime. This purpose has challenged me to figure out what exactly it means to be free. As someone whose movement foundation is built from African American social dance traditions, I am constantly thinking about movement as a language, ritual, and relational teacher. I do not believe in movement frameworks, techniques, or institutions that remove it from the bodies of everyday people, placing only those who are exceptional on pedestals to be idolized and admired. Seeing and feeling myself move are how I know that I am alive! That I can grow! That I can change!

Featured Project(s): https://www.instagram.com/p/DXACrnymvbO/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I would like to share my expertise with:

  • Alumni

  • Students

I would like to:

  • Speak on a panel

  • Conduct a workshop

  • Share advice via phone or coffee chat

  • Offer Pro Bono Services

Contact Jessica Bailey