Jessie Marion Smith — Dancer, Musician, Filmmaker

Jessie Marion Smith is a Seattle-based choreographer, performer, filmmaker, designer, and musician. She is the Director of Dead Bird Movement, a contemporary dance and experimental film company. Smith is also co-director of the rock’n’roll art-punk project Marion Walker. Formed in 2012, Marion Walker plays as a band, as well as makes interdisciplinary video and performance work. They have toured extensively around the US and have released several albums and stop-motion dance/music videos. Jessie was also a founding member of the experimental theater ensemble Implied Violence and choreographed for the group from 2003 to 2009. More recently, she choreographed and performed with Saint Genet from 2011 to 2016, making large-scale environmental installations and image-based opera. Jessie also performed and toured for many years with Amy O’Neal and Zeke Keeble’s company Locust and Dayna Hanson.

Jessie on Art and Nature

Nature is where Jessie lets her mind wander and eyes focus. It is a framework on which she often bases the first stages of her choreographic process. She uses the shapes, angles, environmental dynamics, and cultural context of her setting to inform her composition. Her process is akin to plein-air painting with her body. She converts her observations into dance, transforming her setting into abstract distillations.