Jess Curtis, Director/Choreographer, (San Francisco/Berlin)
Living and working in both San Francisco and Berlin, Jess Curtis has created a body of work ranging from the underground extremes of Mission District warehouses with Contraband and CORE (1985-1998) to the formal refinement and exuberance of European State Theaters and Circus Tents with Compagnie Cahin-Caha and Jess Curtis/Gravity (1998-present). Mr. Curtis has collaborated with the renowned FabrikCompanie in Potsdam, Germany to create the award winning fallen; and been commissioned to create works for companies such as Artblau in Germany, ContactArt in Milan, Italy, Blue Eyed Soul Dance Company in England, and Croi Glan Integrated Dance in Ireland. Curtis has twice been recognized by the James Irvine Foundation/ Dance USA California Dance Initiatives, having been awarded a California Dancemakers Fellowship (2001) and a Dance: Creation to Performance Award (2005). He also teaches Dance, Contact Improv and Interdisciplinary Performance throughout the US and Europe and has been a visiting professor at UC Berkeley, and the University of the Arts in Berlin. He is currently pursuing an PhD in Performance Studies with a focus on choreographic practice at the University of California at Davis. Contact Improvisation and Spontaneous Composition are central tools in his performing practice, which he uses as training/tuning techniques for himself and the performers he works with, and in making performances that embrace the risk of making choices in real time.  www.jesscurtisgravity.org <http://www.jesscurtisgravity.org>