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. 

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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.