Jessica Loveall

Biography

Jess is a life-long visual artist, mover, and improviser. She studied dance, dance education, art/design, and Liberal Arts as an undergraduate at Colorado State University (1999) and later attended graduate school in California (Chapman University) for Educational Psychology (2011). While living in the San Francisco Bay area, she also attended Bauman College (Berkeley) to study holistic health and is a Certified Nutrition Consultant.

Jess has trained in jazz, ballet, modern, and improvisation extensively from an early age and studied abroad in Ghana in 1999 specifically to learn West African drumming and dance. She trained, performed, & choreographed on the CO Front Range from the mid-1990s through 2001 (Interweave Dance Theater/BJDW/Nancy Cranbourne, OpenStage Theater/OpenStage, etc., Judy Bejarano, Dance Connection Performance Network, Colorado Dance Fest/Gabe Masson, Jacob Mora, David Dorfman/No Roles Barred). Starting in 2001, she trained in release technique and contact improvisation through Bates Dance Fest and, while living in San Francisco, danced professionally for the San Francisco legend Kathleen Hermesdorf from 2002-2004. She also presented collaborative choreographic work through Sunday Salon at the ODC School and Theater with Mair Culbreth, Ph.D. In 2011, she co-created a short dance film (http://www.formsofidentification.com/) and accompanying expressive arts educational curriculum about identity loss. This film was accepted into national and international film festivals and won several awards.

Since 2011, Jess has worked with preschool to high school-aged children as a School Psychologist and private Licensed Educational Psychologist (California) in both the Bay Area and in Ft. Collins (Colorado), within the Poudre School District (PSD). She is also a licensed professional counseling candidate who works with private clients. In Summer 2022, she joined forces with CSU Dance to strengthen the partnership between CSU and PSD and help create more comprehensive movement/dance opportunities in public schools through the lens of Social Emotional Learning. In this role, she mentors CSU Dance interns and teaches creative movement and cross-curricular dance to K-5th students. This partnership was initially formalized at Laurel Elementary with plans to expand to other schools within PSD and enhance dance engagement and programming throughout Colorado school districts.

In addition to teaching children creative movement and specific dance forms, Jess has been a visiting/guest artist and college-level instructor before joining the CSU Dance faculty. She also consults and presents on centering mental health within dance curricula. Since 2023, she has co-directed the CSU Dance Education In Motion Professional Development seminar for PK-12 Colorado educators, founded by Lisa Morgan. Most recently, Jess began a teacher certification program for BodyMind Dancing, which focuses on somatic dance and embodied experience through the direction and mentorship of Dr. Martha Eddy.