Jill Johnson | Founding Collaborator

Jill Johnson is an innovative and accomplished dancer, choreographer, educator and producer. A 25-year veteran of the dance field, she has appeared in over 50 tours and taught for dance companies and colleges on five continents. An honors graduate of the National Ballet School, she was a soloist with The National Ballet of Canada and principal dancer with Ballet Frankfurt. A protégé and 21-year close collaborator of choreographer William Forsythe, she stages and produces Forsythe's ballets on companies worldwide, including The Norwegian National Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Alterballetto, Netherlands Dans Theater, Batsheva Dance Company, The National Ballet of Canada, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Boston Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. Her recent choreographic works include The Copier for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet; Room/Room for NYU; 27 for 17 for The New School University where she was Artist-In-Residence in 2009; As Yet Unnamed for the Movement Invention Project Collective in 2010; Folding Articulation for Princeton University; Waterline for Barnard College at Columbia University; Solo for Jeff for The Juilliard School in 2011; choreography for Harvard's 10th Anniversary Observance of September 11th, The Art of Survival, in 2011; and RE: RE: RE:, a dance installation for Harvard students in 2011/12. She also choreographs for film and television, notably a series of dance film shorts for Bravo arts channel in Canada and is a featured performer in Forsythe's Clear House Dance and in music videos for German techno artist Sven Vaeth and American singer-songwriter David Poe. In 2009-2010 she had a teaching residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City, and in 2010 she was Artist-In-Residence for Morphoses and at Jacksonville University's MFA program. She has been faculty at Princeton University, Barnard College at Columbia University, and Movement Invention Project in New York where she has also been Choreographer-In-Residence. She has also served as adjunct faculty at The Juilliard School, The Joffrey School, and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts; has taught master classes at Yale University; and teaches regularly at The Ailey School, The Juilliard School, The Joffrey School, The New School University, and Ohio State University where she collaborated on the award-winning OSU/Forsythe Company web-based project Synchronous Objects. She has designed curricula and syllabi for dance programs and departments at educational institutions including NYU, Princeton University, Columbia University, The Ailey School, The New School University and The Juilliard School. Her awards include the Peter Dwyer Scholarship and the Lowen Ondaaje McCutcheon and Company Award for most outstanding effort and achievement in dance, both awarded at Canada’s National Ballet School; Balletanz Magazine International, 2003 Annual Critics’ Awards: Most Outstanding Dancer; Time Out New York, Best Choreography in New York, Honorable Mention List 2008, for The Copier; and the Communication Arts 2010 Interactive Annual Award for Synchronous Objects. Ms. Johnson is currently collaborating with William Forsythe and Mikhail Baryshnikov on a solo for Mr. Baryshnikov.

photo credit courtesy of NJDTE: Veranika Antanevich

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