about ayo

Ayo Janeen Jackson (b. 1978) is a multidisciplinary artist whose body-based visual art practice is rooted in her decades-long career as a professional dancer.

Originally from North Carolina, Jackson holds a BFA in Dance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a Master’s in Interdisciplinary Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Jackson began her performance career with the renowned Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, later joining the French contemporary ballet company Ballet Preljocaj. After living and working in Europe, she returned to New York to perform in Turn Off the Dark (directed by Julie Taymor) on Broadway. She continued assisting Bill T. Jones while developing a visual art practice that has since been exhibited in galleries and institutions across the United States.

In 2022, Jackson was awarded the Artrepreneur Award from her alma mater, UNCSA. She made her film directorial debut with the Afro-futurist short Tear Suture Scab (2023), scored by legendary cultural critic and musician Greg Tate.

Most recently, her solo exhibition Redemption! The Black Unicorn Wormhole premiered in 2024 at the Herron School of Art + Design (Berkshire Gallery, Indiana University Indianapolis).

Ten in Search of a Nation, the AFRICOBRA MANIFESTO:

(B) This is a big one . . . Shine—a major quality, a

major quality. We want the things to shine, to

have the rich luster of a just-washed ’Fro, of spitshined

shoes, of de-ashened elbows and knees

and noses. The Shine who escaped the Titanic,

the “li’l light of mine,” patent leather, Dixie

Peach, Bar-BQ, fried fish, cars, ad shineum!

AWARDS

2022 Artrepreneur Award, UNCSA
2021 Artist-in-Residence, LMCC Governors Island
2021 NYSCA/NYFA Fellow, Interdisciplinary Arts
2014 Princess Grace Award, Dance

EDUCATION

MFA Interdisciplinary Arts, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2018
BFA Contemporary Dance, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, 1999

DANCE + CHOREOGRAPHY

2020 Dancer, Tick, Tick…Boom (Netflix)
2019 Dancer, Saturday Night Live
2018 Assistant Choreographer to Bill T. Jones, Carmen Jones, Classic Stage Company
2015 Choreographer, An Octoroon, The Wilma Theater
2012 Associate Choreographer, Superfly, the musical NY
2010–12 Performer, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Broadway, NY
2006–09 Dancer, Ballet Preljocaj, France
2006 Dancer, Grendel (dir. Julie Taymor), LA Opera & Lincoln Center
1999–2005 Dancer, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, NY

EXHIBITIONS + SCREENINGS (SELECTED)

2024 Redemption! The Black Unicorn Wormhole, Indiana University
2024 Tear Suture Scab (film screening), NYU
2021 Comfort Riddle, Mineral House Media & Wavelength Space, TN
2019 Every Woman Biennial, 222 Bowery, NY
2018 Liberated Soles, Moving Body, Moving Image Festival, Barnard College, NY
2016 Applied Color, La Maison d’Art, NY
2015 Africa’s Out (A Wangechi Mutu initiative), Solo Performance, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, NY

RESIDENCIES

2017 PASS Residency, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY
2016 Elsewhere Museum, Greensboro, NC
2016 Sundance Theater Lab, Marrakech, Morocco

TEACHING + GUEST ARTIST WORK

2019 Guest Artist, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
2018–19 Guest Faculty, Barnard College, NY
2013–15 Adjunct Professor, University of the Arts, Philadelphia – Dance & Theater