ABOUT THE ARTISTIC DIRECTORS
JESSIE JEANNE STINNETT
Founder, Co-Artistic Director
Jessie Jeanne Stinnett is a Climate Reality Leader trained by former US Vice President Al Gore as well as a dancer, choreographer, and the founder and co-artistic director of Boston Dance Theater (BDT). Her current project, SURGE, is created in collaboration with ocean scientist Dr Larry J. Pratt of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the BIPOC dance artists of Boston Dance Theater. SURGE addresses the crisis of sea level rise, and the role that arts + science collaboration can play in creating a sustainable future.
She received a BFA in Dance Performance from The Boston Conservatory and an MFA in Creative Practice: Dance Professional Pathway from Trinity Laban Conservatoire, in conjunction with Independent Dance/Siobhan Davies Dance. Most notably Jessie has performed for the Metropolitan Opera, Tate Britain (UK), Prometheus Dance, Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (Vienna), The Boston Baroque Opera, and Bard College’s SummerScape Festival.
Her choreographic work has been described by Hannah Chanatry of WBUR as “conceptually driven performance that unpacks the complexities of being female, and pushes the academic boundaries of choreography” and has been sustained in part by grants from The MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, and Mellon Foundation, NH State Council for the Arts, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, The Boston Foundation with support from The Barr Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, Assets4Artists at MASS MoCA, and Fidelity Charitable.
Some of Jessie’s recent teaching and choreography credits include: Newport Contemporary Ballet, Seattle International Dance Festival, The Trustees of Reservations, Rose Kennedy Greenway, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, TEDxCambridge, Boston Ballet School, Dean College, Keene State University, Providence College, Endicott College, Goethe Institut Boston, Museum of Fine Arts with Jewish Arts Collaborative, Emerald Necklace Conservancy, and Emmanuel Music. She was the recipient of the 2020 Boston Dancemakers Residency grant award and the 2020 Choreographer in Residence at Boston Center for the Arts and Boston Dance Alliance. In 2023 Jessie is serving as a Visiting Lecturer in Harvard University’s Theater Dance & Media Department.
ITZIK GALILI
Co-Artistic Director
Itzik Galili is an Israeli choreographer and Artistic Director of Curtain Up, Israel's “most prestigious and sought-after platform for independent Israeli choreographers” founded and supported by the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sport (The Jerusalem Post). Galili is the only choreographer in the world to have worked with all of the major contemporary dance companies based in Israel as a dancer, choreographer, and mentor. After having been member of the Batsheva Dance Company and Bat-Dor Dance Company, his credits include Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, Vertigo Dance Company, Inbal Pinto & Avshalom
Pollack, and Yasmeen Godder Dance.
Galili also holds a knighthood for his contributions to Dutch arts and culture. During his time in the Netherlands, Galili initiated five very successful organisations, each with a unique approach to dance making, education, and performance including Project Sally, Club Guy & Roni, NND/Galili Dance, and Dansgroep Amsterdam with Hungarian choreographer Kristina de Chatel.
He was awarded the originality prize at the Gvanim Choreographic Competition in 1991 for “Old Cartoon”. In 1992, he won the Public Prize at the International Competition for Choreographers in Groningen with his creation “The Butterfly Effect” and was honoured in 1994 with the final Selection Culture Award (Phillip Morris) for exceptional talent. He has built an oeuvre of more than 60 works and has created for and worked with international companies such as: Bale da Cidade de São Paulo, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, Batsheva Dance Company, Bayerisches Staatsoper Munich, Cisne Negro, Diversions Dance Company, Dutch National Ballet, Gulbenkian Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Nederlands Dans Theater II, Norrdans, Royal Finnish Ballet, Rambert Dance Company, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Scapino Ballet and the Stuttgart Ballet.
Galili is currently focusing his efforts on building a bridge between his artistic networks in Israel and Boston through his newest venture, Boston Dance Theater, a contemporary repertory company based in the city of Boston, co-directed with Boston-born dancer and choreographer Jessie Jeanne Stinnett.