I’m Out Here Doing My Best, Damnit!
Because that’s what my mama told me to do whenever I left the house.
Photo by Laura Bianchi, courtesy of the Bogliasco Foundation
(they/them)
Currently moving on pandemic timing and prioritizing rest. As a Dance Artist and Astrologer, j. bouey is finding their way back to joy by imagining the abolition of systemic oppression through their current project, SATURN.
j. is a 2023 Bessie Award Outstanding Performer recipient, served on the DanceNYC Taskforce and the Board of DanceUSA. j. is also the founder of The Dance Union Podcast, initiating the NYC Dancers COVID-19 Relief Fund and The Dance Union Town Hall For Collective Action to support the dance community through numerous world-changing events.
As a creator, j. is a recent 2021-2022 Jerome Fellow and is a 2022/2023 Movement Research Artist in Residence. j. bouey was also recently a 2024 ImPulsTanz | 8:tension Artist-in--Residence, 2023 STooPS Artist was also a Gibney 2021 Spotlight Artist, Artist-In-Residence at CPR – Center for Performance Research, and 2021 Bogliasco Fellow. j. was also a 2019 QAM - Queer Art Mentorship Fellow, 2018 Movement Research Van Lier Fellow, 2018 Artist-in-Residence at the Dance and Performance Institute of Trinidad and Tobago, and a 2018 Dancing While Black Fellow. j. has presented their original work at JACK, Odeon Theater, Madura Studios, New York Live Arts, Judson Church, and more.
j. is currently a collaborator with nia love. They were also a former performer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and The Fabulous Waack Dancers, danced with Germaul Barnes’ Viewsic Dance, Maria Bauman’s MB Dance, Dante Brown, Antonio Brown Dance, Christal Brown’s INspirit Dance, and apprenticed with Emerge 125 (formerly Elisa Monte Dance) under the artistic direction of Tiffany Rea-Fisher, Scorpius Dance Theater and EPIK Dance Company.
Determined to manifest the dreams dreamt in their youth, j. bouey is assuming this responsibility because these dreams sustained them when the sun didn’t shine or shined too bright to see.
“The function of freedom is to free someone else.”
― Toni Morrison.
Photo by: Laura Bianchi, courtesy of the Bogliasco Foundation
At the end of the day and beginning of the next, I am a griot. I receive and share stories through dance projects to support the liberation of our global community.
I use astrology (the observation of the stars and planets of our lives) in a myriad of ways to support us as many griots have done before me.
I pray we all experience liberation on a healthy planet. if not us, then the next generations.