JESSE FACTOR

Jesse Factor trained at the Martha Graham School and danced with Graham II and the Martha Graham Dance Company. Born in Sharon PA, Jesse grew up in Quito, Ecuador and Bangkok, Thailand before earning a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Factor holds an MFA from the University of Iowa and completed additional studies at the American Dance Festival and 92 St Y's Dance Education Lab (DEL). Jesse currently serves in the Modern Dance unit at Point Park University’s Conservatory of Performing Arts.

Jesse Factor’s growing repertoire of solo work combines a speculative view of queer histories and the archive with contemporary composition practices. He has created Mommie Queerest, presented at Queers in Revolt at Sam Houston University in 2019, Kween Kong presented at the Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival in 2017, and Marthagany: the Spectre-Acle series, which continues to tour at dance festivals, performance events, and nightclubs. Jesse Factor’s studied channeling of divas in exile--from time and body--hauntingly reflects the impressions they’ve left behind.

Factor’s work has been presented in many American and international venues including TQ Live! at the Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), Boston Contemporary Dance Festival, Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival, OUTsider Festival (Austin), Milton Art Bank (Milton), RADfest (Kalamazoo), St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery (NYC), Fresh Fruit Festival (NYC), Queer Spectra (Salt Lake City), House of Yes, (NYC), and Fierce Queer Burlesque (Toronto).

Awards include the Twin Cities Arts Reader Critics Pick and Minnesota Fringe Staff Pick for RELIC at the Minnesota Fringe Festival and Outstanding Dance Performance for Marthagany at the Fresh Fruit Festival-NYC. Jesse received the Kelly Strayhorn Alloy Studios Freshworks residency grant (Pittsburgh, PA) for a collaborative work with multimedia artist Scott Andrew. Factor received the Iowa Arts Fellowship (2015-2016) and an Obermann Graduate Institute Fellowship (2017) at the University of Iowa.

Factor taught students at The University of Akron in 2021 as part of a survey series called 21st Century Dance Practices — the first of three programs of Ideas in Motion, a new joint initiative between NCCAkron, The University of Akron School of Dance, Theatre, and Arts Administration (DTAA), and the Mary Schiller Myers Lecture Series in the Arts. He was also interviewed by NCCAkron's Artistic/Executive Director Christy Bolingbroke for the Inside the Dancer's Studio conversation series.