BIOGRAPHY

Jesse Factor’s obsession with the cultural phenomenon of the diva figure, iconicity, and remembering provides an entry point into his solo work. This growing repertoire centers artifice, nostalgia, and cross gender-identification. His ongoing ‘Marthaodyssey’' series builds imagined combinations of archival Graham movement and themes with popular music and takes delight in the dissonant intersections of these worlds. Other works such as ‘Relic’, ‘Mommie Queerest’ and ‘Kween Kong’ embody impossible fusions, bridge cultural worlds, and play with concepts of the monstrous and sublime. Awards include National Dance Project Finalist and Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council Arts Revival Grant for ‘Show Queen’, Twin Cities Arts Reader Critics Pick and Minnesota Fringe Staff Pick for ‘RELIC’ at the MN Fringe Festival, and Outstanding Dance Performance for ‘Marthagany’ at the Fresh Fruit Festival (NYC). Factor received a Kelly Strayhorn Theater Freshworks residency (Pgh) for ‘I am a Haunted House’, a collaborative work with multimedia artist Scott Andrew in 2020. Factor’s work has been presented at TQ Live! - Andy Warhol Museum (Pgh), Boston Contemporary Dance Festival, Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival, KYLD Inhale (Phila), OUTsider Festival (Austin), Milton Art Bank (Milton), RADfest (Kalamazoo), Fierce Queer Burlesque (Toronto), St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, Fresh Fruit Festival (NYC) and House of Yes (NYC). Factor danced professionally with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Graham II, National Touring Company of CATS, and earned a BFA from Tisch/NYU, MFA from the University of Iowa.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I believe in dance as an intense way of existing, rather than as a vehicle for a message or the organization of bodies in time and space. I do not wish to speak through the body, instead I wish to let the body speak for itself through the transformations and effort involved in exaggeration and stylization. I mine hidden queer histories in dance in order to re-imagine possibilities for the future.