Hello. My name is Jacob. I am an artist working in the UK. I was born in 1992 and grew up in Folkestone, Kent.

I am trained in contemporary dance which is the main influence on my work. My first encounter with dance was through my cousin. She was a dancer, she used to teach me her routines and we would perform them to our parents. My mum tried tirelessly to put me into a dance school but I refused.

I began dancing again at secondary school under a team of female artists in 2005. Dance was compulsory as part of the curriculum at Brockhill Park Performing Arts College and is a massively celebrated subject at the school. The teachers work hard to prove the benefits of dance in and out of the studio. Boys dance was also hugely successful. At school I was shy, I battled with my identity, but dance empowered me. After gaining my dance GCSE I studied four A-level’s, two of which were dance based. Dance felt good. It gave me a friend group, we grew from teenagers to young adults. I continued to discover my identity. I loved music, parties and friends. I was able to speak about my sexuality for the first time. A-level dance gave me the first opportunity to explore my choreographic voice. Choreography gave me the feeling I was good at something for the first time. I knew I wanted to explore it more.

I went to study Dance BA (Hons) at the University of Chichester in 2011. I was tutored by some of what would become my biggest influencers. I found a love for contact improvisation. I approached university with a social attitude. I had fun. The ‘fun’ began to inform my choreographic voice. I wanted to make work that was real, true depictions of what was going on in our lives: socially and politically. My university training coupled with my fondness for nightlife culture created a choreographic style which at the time was loud and theatrical. It felt like I could scream through choreography. I was making work for the studio or theatre as I invited the house party or the nightclub dance floor into the space. I completed my BA (Hons) winning the Lea Anderson Prize for Choreographic Innovation.

In 2014 I went straight into studying MA Performance Dance with mapdance (under the direction of Yael Flexer and Detta Howe) at the University of Chichester. Fourteen of us worked with five national and international choreographers (Ofra Idel, Johnathan Burrows, Abi Mortimer, Rick Nodine and Kerry Nicholls) to create a touring bill which we took to venues across the UK, Norway and Slovakia. My dissertation researched hyperreality and autobiography in performance.

After university I founded Shades of Bray through the GradLab scheme at The Point, Eastleigh. I successfully auditioned for the role of choreographer and worked with four dancers to create a new work. Head over Heels (2016) premiered at Resolution at The Place in London.

Under my company name Shades of Bray I have continued to make work through different forms. Please see ‘work’ for more info.

I am interested in placing my work with Shades of Bray among current social and political contexts. As a dancer, my movement vocabulary is different from my style of choreography. I have been described as an ‘earthy’ mover. I am a grounded, circular dancer often leaning towards work with the floor and contact improvisation. I like working within improvisation and somatic approaches. Areas or theories which I am interested in or have explored are: intertextuality, hyperreality, autobiography in performance, feminism, club culture.