Jennifer Perfilio (She/Her) is a multi-disciplinary performer, producer, dance educator, and the Artistic Director of Jennifer Perfilio Movement Works (JPMW), a Bay Area-based, not for profit dance ensemble, working to create and present experimental, site-responsive dance performance that breaks down the traditional boundaries of dance theater presentation. She founded JPMW in 2016, as a commitment to fostering the vitality of dance and dance performance amidst the dramatically changing pace of San Francisco’s artistic landscape. Beginning in 2020, during the pandemic, JPMW began producing, in partnership with SF Recreation & Parks Department, and the SF Botanical Garden, an ongoing series of free, outdoor, performance happenings, integrated into the urban public landscapes of Golden Gate Park, and rooted in an ethics of collective care. These cumulative performance projects explore and present ways of sharing space rather than occupying it. In 2023, JPMW was commissioned by Epiphany Dance Theater to create and perform a site-responsive work that interacted with the dynamic space and exhibits of the Human Phenomenon Gallery of the SF Exploratorium, as part of SF Trolley Dances 20th Anniversary production. JPMW was also commissioned by composer Andrea Densmore, to choreograph several works for the contemporary, multi-genre opera entitled Eve, and performed at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater in 2022. JPMW has been presented by Dance Mission Theater, Levysalon, Studio 200, Concept Series, Shawl-Anderson Dance, PUSHfest, and through residencies with Safehouse Arts, including RAW and SPF. As a performer, Jennifer has worked with choreographers in NYC and the Bay Area, including Alexandra Beller, Mary Carbonara, HT Chen, Jess Curtis, Mark Dendy, Aura Fischbeck, Katie Faulkner, Amy Foley, Christy Funsch, Irene Hsi, Stephan Koplowitz, and Charles Moulton, among others. For ten years she worked with Kim Epifano and Epiphany Dance Theater in various roles, including site-specific performer, rehearsal director, and assistant artistic director, as well as liaison and teacher for “Kids on Track,” a program of SF Trolley Dances, which introduced site-specific dance performance to school students in the Bay Area. Jennifer is inspired by aforementioned choreographers, as well as her teachers/mentors over the years, including Deborah Black, Wally Cardona, Sherwood Chen, Jim Coleman, Therese Freeman, Rosemary Hannon, Keith Hennessey, Kathleen Hermsedorff, Sara Shelton Mann, and Miriam Wolodarski, among others. Originally from the east coast, Jennifer holds a BA degree in Dance, with a minor in Spanish Language from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.JPMW creates and presents work rooted in collaborative process, community engagement, and support for other artists.

Photo by Kena Frank