About the Director
Meet John Jasperse ’85, Director of the BA/MFA Dance Program
“The MFA in Dance Program is a professional training program for dance artists, centering a speculative approach to the discipline while encouraging students to build critical thinking skills as a core element of their artistic practice. We seek to train thoughtful, creative professionals who are leaders in the field, able to envision ways that dance can play a vital role within societal culture in a rapidly changing world.”
Background
Teaching Experience and Directorship at Sarah Lawrence College
John became the Director of Sarah Lawrence College’s Dance program in 2016 and previously has taught at many distinguished institutions nationally and internationally, including Hollins University MFA, University of California–Davis, Movement Research, PARTS (Brussels, Belgium), SEAD (Salzburg, Austria), Centre National de la Danse (Lyon, France), and Danscentrum (Stockholm, Sweden).
Education
BA, Sarah Lawrence College
John Jasperse Projects
Founded John Jasperse Company, later renamed John Jasperse Projects, in 1989 and has since created 21 evening-length works through this nonprofit structure, as well as numerous commissions for other companies, including Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, Batsheva Dance Company, Lyon Opera Ballet, and two co-productions with William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt and Forsythe Company. John Jasperse Projects has been presented in 24 US cities and 29 countries by presenters that include the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Joyce Theater, New York Live Arts, Dance Theater Workshop, The Kitchen, Walker Art Center, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, American Dance Festival, La Biennale di Venezia, Dance Umbrella London, Montpellier Danse, and Tanz im August Berlin. His current collaboration with renowned visual artist Julie Mehretu was presented in New York City at Marian Goodman Gallery and in Warsaw, Poland at the Museum of Modern Art Warsaw in 2026. Co-founder of CPR (Center for Performance Research) in Brooklyn, NY.
Awards
Recipient of a 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award, two Bessie awards (2014, 2001), and multiple fellowships from US Artists, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Tides/Lambent Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, and National Endowment for the Arts, in addition to numerous grants and awards for John Jasperse Projects.
Recent Press
May 19, 2026
Acclaimed choreographer and dance program director John Jasperse ’85 was featured in The New York Times for his latest work, Wandering, a collaboration with renowned visual artist Julie Mehretu at Marian Goodman Gallery in New York. The immersive performance unfolds across three floors of the gallery, with seven dancers responding to Mehretu’s paintings through movement, sound, and space. Created specifically for Mehretu’s exhibition Our Days, Like a Shadow (a non-abiding hauntology), the work invites audiences to move through the gallery alongside the performers, blurring the boundaries between dance, visual art, and architecture.
June 16, 2025
"Tides" by choreographer John Jasperse '85 has been counted among The New York Times' "Best Dance of 2025, So Far".
In the April 28 edition of “Critic’s Notebook” in The New York Times, Brian Seibert called the La Mama Moves! premiere of “Tides” “one of the most engrossing dance works” he’s seen this year. Among its performers, “Tides” featured Maria Fleischman ’23 and Jace Weyant ’22, former students of Jasperse, who has been the director of the Sarah Lawrence Dance program since 2016. Seibert noted in particular how Jasperse’s “compositional skill and artistry channel the talents of these exceptional performers into the special sorcery of contemporary dance.”
April 29, 2025
In the April 28 edition of “Critic’s Notebook” in The New York Times, Brian Seibert calls the La Mama Moves! premiere of “Tides” by choreographer John Jasperse ’85 “one of the most engrossing dance works” he’s seen this year. Among its performers, “Tides” features Maria Fleischman ’23 and Jace Weyant ’22, former students of Jasperse, who has been the director of the Sarah Lawrence Dance program since 2016. Seibert notes in particular how Jasperse’s “compositional skill and artistry channel the talents of these exceptional performers into the special sorcery of contemporary dance.”
December 22, 2022
“An exploration at the edges of beauty and death,” Visitation is Jasperse’s most recent work. With the last few years marked by isolation thanks to the pandemic, this year’s performances signaled a movement towards community, with Visitation showcasing “an eerier kind of togetherness.” Visitation debuted at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in September.
September 12, 2022
The New York Times Lauds Premiere of Visitation, Choreographed, Directed, and Designed by Dance Program Director John Jasperse '85
Watch, Listen, Read
SLC Transcript Review
In this episode, Dahlia Shepherd and dance program director John Jasperse ’85 explore how dance at Sarah Lawrence connects creative practice with professional experience. Through the Open Performance program, Dahlia collaborated with visiting artists, gaining a behind-the-scenes view of how a dance company works. Alongside studying movement theory, creating choreography, and analyzing performance, she found a strong sense of community and purpose—culminating in what she describes as “seeing the birth of something,” bringing an original work to life from concept to performance. Watch here.