Jordan Rosin

incandescent

– The Mad River Union

Short Biography

Jordan Rosin (they/them+) is a gender-fluid / trans non-binary parent, community member, theatre artist, and educator. 5th generation European-American, Jordan’s ancestors migrated to Turtle Island/North America from Germany, France and other parts of Europe in the early 17th and 20th centuries and have lived on and around the Salish Sea in the territories of the Duwamish, Puyallup, Muckleshoot, and other Coast Salish peoples since approximately the 1900s. Jordan is currently expanding their reputation as a freelance theatrical director and movement/intimacy coordinator/director for film and live theatre while striving to create more gender-inclusive spaces and to embody more restorative ways of being. Jordan has trained at the intersection of arts and social justice with organizations like the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute, Nicole Brewer’s Antiracist Theatre, Amplify RJ, Equity Literacy Institute, Theatrical Intimacy Education, Theatre of the Oppressed NYC and more.

Jordan is a co-founder and co-artistic director of the New York City-based physical theatre ensemble, The Ume Group and frequent collaborator with the butoh/physical theatre company Ren Gyo Soh. Their direction and choreography have been seen Off-Off Broadway, as well as across Europe and North America. Their creative practice-led research on the intersection of consent/boundaries, harm reduction, creativity, and collaboration has been presented at dozens of national and international conferences and published in PARtake: The Journal of Performance-as-Research.

As a teaching artist, Jordan has worked for Children’s Circus of Middletown, Tacoma Musical Playhouse, Auburn Regional Theatre, 5th Avenue Musical Theatre, and the Overlake School. They have also served on the performance faculty at Virginia Tech, the Northwest School, and Dell’Arte International. 

Jordan holds a BFA from Syracuse University and an MFA in Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre from Dell’Arte International. They are a member of Actors Equity Association (AEA) and the Pacific Northwest Theatrical Intimacy Professionals Collective (PNWTI), and an Associate Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers’ Society (SDC). www.jordanrosin.net / IG: @jrosinmoves

Artist Statement

My name is Jordan Rosin. My life purpose is to create physical theatre that stirs people’s souls (minds, bodies, and spirits) so that they can access the true psycho-physical-spiritual freedom which is their evolutionary birthright. This freedom is essential to facilitating the mindful transformation of our simultaneously growing and broken world.

The particular “stirring” which my emerging brand of physical theatre incites can be subtle like the physiological catharsis of seeing butoh or as extreme as an audience-participatory dance party. This stirring, like the unexpected breath which facilitates the “widening, lengthening, and releasing” so ubiquitous in the Alexander Technique, plays a constant role in helping us to observe, inhibit, and redirect those habits which inadaptibly fix our bodies and minds in place and make us susceptible to separation from our spirits. The experiences of freedom which result from this stirring, whether internal or external, expand the expressive and empathic capacity of both audiences and artists alike.

I believe that the physical theatre and performative work which inspires freedom is characterized by “wow” moments, appropriately framed with consideration to The Viewpoints of Time and Space as articulated by Anne Bogart, and also “Real Moves,” defined by Elizabeth Streb as movements with momentum and consequence, the interruption of which might be catastrophic. Real risk of this kind can be extraordinarily exhilarating, inspiring, and cathartic for audiences. Related to both the former is an exploration of what Streb calls the “Unhabituated Space” both in the literal sense of how the dynamic space of the stage is partnered with and exploited to its fullest extent (eg. flying through the air; descending from the ceiling; walking on walls), but also in the metaphoric sense of going into the unknown with regards theme, intention, or genre. Equally essential is the notion of  “story” as defined by an introduction, hinge, and resolution (however micro or macroscopic) and the rootedness of performative work in “real life”, however therefrom made fantastical or stylized. Collective ownership and co-creative processes are also key in producing, not just more widely resonant work, but work which in its making sets an example of cooperation from which we can all learn. Above all, this work of the physical theatre must be undertaken with a sincerity such that our intention as artists has the resonant vitality to be believed and deeply felt.

– Jordan Rosin

Long Biography

JORDAN ROSIN (they/he/she) is an award-winning physical theatre artist, teacher, director and performer belonging to the third generation of the avant-garde movement form Butoh. Their main butoh teachers are Joan Laage, Vangeline, & Tetsuro Fukuhara, though he has trained with numerous others including Yoshito Ohno, Ko Murobushi, Katsura Kan, Diego Pinon, and Daiichiro Yuyama. Jordan also draws on yoga, clowning, and acrobatics to create choreography & movements with popular and poetic resonance. Jordan was a co-founder & Producing Artistic Director of the NYC-based physical theatre ensemble, The Ume Group from 2011-2016; has been a frequent collaborator with the butoh company Ren Gyo Soh; and is creator of DREAM DANCES™.  Jordan received their BFA in Drama from Syracuse University and MFA in Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre at Dell’Arte International in Blue Lake, CA.

In 2011, after moving to New York City, Jordan and friends from Syracuse founded the physical theatre ensemble, The Ume Group as a vehicle to produce their flagship martial arts / butoh dance epic Butoh Electra at the New York International Fringe Festival.  Since then, and through various iterations, The Ume Group has grown to become a diverse ensemble of artists dedicated to the cornerstones of learning, teaching, creating, & performing, offering regular workshops and classes at Grace & St. Paul’s Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Under Jordan’s tenure as Producing Artistic Director, the Core Ensemble of teaching artists grew to an impressively dedicated 8 members, representing over 4 different nationalities and a diverse background of acting, dancing and physical theatre experiences.  The company is still active today under the direction of Keelie Sheridan, who took over artistic leadership in 2016.  (For more info, visit: www.theumegroup.org)

For The Ume Group, Jordan’s credits include writer/producer of Butoh Electra (The Irondale Center, FringeNYC, Syracuse University), performer/co-creator of Facet (Hollywood Fringe Festival, Wave Rising Series), performer/co-creator of Isis Variations (FringeNYC, Cool NY Dance Festival) and director/choreographer of Dream Dances and of The Lysistrata Project.  She also produced over two dozen workshops, readings, festivals, short films, dance performances, and special events over the course of her 5 years as Producing Artistic Director.

Jordan has been a frequent collaborator with the butoh dance collective Ren Gyo Soh, for whom performance credits include leading dance roles in Shinka-evolution and Hoichi-the earless as well as choreography for Butoh Medea (Winner: Best One-Woman Show, Best Choreography at United Solo 2014 & Best Physical Theatre, United Solo 2015) and movement consultation for Hide Your Fires (United Solo Fest, 2017).

In 2016, after 10 years of yoga practice in various styles, Jordan received their 200 hr vinyasa yoga teacher certification from Loom Yoga Center (RYS) in Brooklyn, NY.  He are now available for group & private lessons by appointment.  To read more about her yoga teaching, click here.

Jordan was born (and began their butoh studies) in rainy Seattle, WA and after 14 years away now lives back in Seattle with her beautiful wife, Kaitlyn, where he works as a freelance movement director and intimacy professional.