jumatatu m. poe
A young choreographer who has already produced such provocative, experimental dance works as FLATLAND 2010 and The Flight Attendants, Poe has spent the past several years studying and researching J-Sette—an underground dance form born from Southern drill team and majorette events, and developed socially in gay, African American clubs. The tight and meticulous movements of J-Sette, interrupted by hugely explosive moments, were woven directly into Poe’s Center-funded project, Private Places, which premiered at the 2012 Philadelphia Fringe Festival. In summer 2013, he worked in residence in the city of Neuss, Germany, working on J-Sette choreography with fellow artist Jermone “Donte” Beacham. In the spring of 2014, he performed with choreographer and dancer niv Acosta at AUX Performance Space as part of the Center-funded AUX Curatorial Fellowship Program. Poe received a Center Project grant in 2017 to create Let 'im Move You: This Is a Formation, further exploring J-Sette in contemporary performance. Poe has performed across the US and in Europe and is the founder and co-director of Philadelphia-based dance/theater company idiosynCrazy productions. He holds an MFA in dance from Temple University and currently teaches at Swarthmore College.
