MEDIUM

Jonah Bokaer has cultivated a new form of Choreography merged with Visual Art & Design. American and Middle Eastern, he has interwoven an international career as an exhibiting museum artist; with a touring multi-ethnic dance company; with a nonprofit that has succeeded in delivering 3 artspaces for younger artists.

Jonah Bokaer Choreography has authored 63 original works, produced in 34 nations, 27 of the United States, and 292 cities – including 41 Museum Exhibitions worldwide. The impact of earned, contributed, and granted funds between 2002-2020 have realized 3 permanent artspaces, 14+ diverse jobs, $11M+ in revenue, and 1 City-Wide Festival. Bokaer is Tunisian-American, is an LGBTQIA leader, and currently exhibits / tours worldwide with 8 international dancers. The company also tours to the Middle East, MENA, MENASA, and Israeli regions equally: before, during, and after regional events of 2011. Bokaer’s innovations consistently receive prizes, philanthropic support, and humanitarian acknowledgment worldwide.

Following two years of intensive pilot programs at UNC investigating “Our Three Winners,” funded by a Mellon Foundation DisTIL Fellowship, MEDIUM Workshops evolved firmly into an ongoing program of Jonah Bokaer Choreography: JBC proposes ongoing partnership with Hudson Muslim Youth, Operation Unite, and others headquartered in Hudson NY, to expand MEDIUM into 50 States (1/1/2021-12/31/2022), overseeing, supporting, and safeguarding future generations of Middle Eastern and Muslim Young Dancers youth to pursue dance, and importantly: 

• To “find their image” within dance 

• To reconcile cultural / canonical representation gaps

• To invest in future bridges allowing Muslim American youth to advance professional dance careers

The project elevates humanity by increasing understanding of Middle Eastern Dance, expanding appreciation of these dance histories within the United States, advancing its position as a serious field of study, and enhancing its contribution to society.

The project’s problem-solving goal is to increase understanding of Middle Eastern Dance, to expand appreciation of these dance histories within the United States, to advance its position as a serious field of study, and to enhance its contribution to society.

To achieve this, Jonah Bokaer and other Middle Eastern dancers of JBC will offer deeply crafted, free community workshops called MEDIUM (already piloted for two years) for participants who wished to improve “everyday body and anti-violence” skills, including physical awareness, public speaking, performance lectures, and “whole self-awareness” for academics, artists, administrators, and audiences alike. To date, the workshops are firmly in place, and are known for attracting diverse Muslim American communities whose relationship to embodiment and dance often benefit from exploration, investigation, or healing.

With program design to positively impact the complex factors affecting interrelationships between Islam, the body, dance, female participation, and public perception, these workshops were designed with goals to heal campus community dynamics, often within vulnerable populations and age groups. 

The workshops were developed on the UNC campus that was traumatized by the “Our Three Winners” incident in which three students were murdered at gunpoint, widely considered a prominent example of Islamophobia in America.

Over the course of two years, Mellon Foundation DisTIL Fellow Jonah Bokaer, with JBC Company Dancers who are also Middle Eastern and Muslim, sought to recognize, identify, program, and reconcile a systemic knowledge gap in the dance world by postulating “A Missing Field Of Study,” which is a newly proposed comprehensive study of Middle Eastern, MENA, MASA, MENASA Dance within academia (on par with studies of African Dance and Indian Dance diasporas, which are more widely acknowledged, taught, studied, documented, and appreciated within dance history, academia, and institutions of power in America). 

Bokaer and other Middle Eastern dancers invested two years in piloting a free series of Workshops for UNC Faculty, Staff, and Community Members who wished to improve “everyday body and anti-violence” skills within a highly contested American campus: including physical awareness, public speaking, performance lectures, and “whole self awareness” for Academics, Artists, Administrators, and Audiences alike. 

The pilot workshops have become known for attracting large Muslim American communities whose relationship to embodiment and dance often benefit from exploration, investigation, and healing. These workshops were also originally designed to heal a campus community that was traumatized by the “Our Three Winners” incident, a prominent example of Islamophobia in America.

Jonah Bokaer, his organization, and in particular our dancers, have made substantial progress in the U.S. to see and recognize distinctions between Middle Eastern, MENA, MASA, MENASA, and Muslim live, as well as the intersectionality between each of these rapidly-evolving identity markers. 

In our work, we see instances where these terms are often used interchangeably in America (or taken for granted): yet through our programs, we consider how to impact lives by most clearly communicating which groups of people we are working with, how, and why. 

To achieve this level of work, additional support is required, especially in the field of dance, where actual capacity building is often in a position of scarcity. 

In the words of our dancers themselves, who contributed to both these pilot programs, and this proposal itself: “From my perception, the scope of our projects often include both Middle Eastern and Muslim communities (including but not limited to the intersection between the two). I think that can be stated/explained upfront in this particular grant, then followed by consistently referring to “Middle Eastern and Muslim Young Dancers.” 

Future reference to the lives we impact, will use that shorthand, developed for this grant, to remain within available wordcounts.

Our proposed project does elevate understanding between people through changing people’s attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors:

With program design to positively impact the complex factors affecting interrelationships between Islam, the body, dance, female participation, and public perception, these workshops were designed with goals to heal community dynamics, often within vulnerable populations and age groups and populations, including:

• Aspiring young Muslim dancers

• Aspiring young MENA / MASA / MENASA dancers, who are non-Muslim

• African American dancers, both Muslim, and non-Muslim

• Non-dancers interested in the subject

• Families interested in the subject

• Academics with adjacent scholarship, research, inquiry

As I evolve my practice, the content and themes of my work are beginning to craft targeted questions around the peoples who have suffered, gone missing, remained absent, or become under-represented, perhaps not having had an opportunity to participate in the performing arts in the United States during the 20th century, nor enjoyed its funding structures. I am interested in engaging with these subjects deeply, over time, for focused project development around these subjects

Over the course of two years while being awarded the Mellon Foundation DisTIL Fellowship at UNC, I engaged with JBC Company Dancers who are also Middle Eastern and Muslim, to recognize, identify, program, and reconcile a systemic knowledge gap in the dance world by postulating “A Missing Field Of Study,” which is a newly proposed comprehensive study of Middle Eastern, MENA, MASA, MENASA Dance within academia (on par with studies of African Dance and Indian Dance diasporas, which are more widely acknowledged, taught, studied, documented, and appreciated within dance history, academia, and institutions of power in America). 

To come up with this project, we did 2 years of pilot programs at UNC, on a campus that was riddled with hate crimes (including Islamophobia and student murder).

Between 1941-1957, my father was a North African refugee and displaced person, who eventually settled in America and began a family. His challenges and triumphs in the United States set the stage for me to inherit other challenges, while pursuing a career in dance.

I became passionate about this project because it marks a unique moment in which the interplay of disciplines and identities in my practice can be perceived and encountered within an integrated whole programmatic gesture, which more widely acknowledges humanity and human need - beyond the capacity of traditional concert dance.

Through healing of stereotypes, these proposed programs and workshops have inspired me to explore the complexities at large in Western representation and identification of individuals in the Middle East and North Africa, including those with diverse religious background (including Islam), and including tools for tolerance.

The impact I have seen with the pilot workshops, so far, have shown a rare capacity for healing, and transformation. Because the Middle Eastern identity is not even present in the U.S. Census, and is absent from most identification options, I am passionate to note a sense of community and geographic reconciliation that could be elaborated on, with further support.

My background involved a career with Merce Cunningham, while also completing a dual concentration in Visual & Media Arts at Parsons School of Design, and The New School. 

By now having participated in 41 museum exhibitions worldwide, mine is a complex art, which has led to a unique, multi-disciplinary body of work incorporating graphic arts, drawing, animation, choreography, and the overlays of these media – often with large scale installation or technical elements. Early works focused on 3D animation and digital renderings of the body, with an emphasis on harnessing different media of image capture, to pre-figure choreography, arriving at an image-as-engine for performances. I still combine these forms with abilities to transform space, and the page itself, often using the metaphor of motion, and its role in interpreting reality. Further, I have been lucky to expand on this practice, to reach parts of the world that were not traditionally served by traditional performing arts touring. 

I am well-positioned to seek substantial, long-term programs which encompass the aesthetic, philosophical, and symbolic elements that lie at the origin of how performance and cultural identity fused together, historically and presently. 

My career so far has often incorporated choreographic ephemera from the past, which have vanished, or can help further investigation into the hidden roots of how choreography exists in museum spaces. I believe that the current juncture in my career contains opportunity for new departure, while building on the skills and professional experiences which led me to this position today.

I am pleased to report that our organization continues to persevere during the COVID-19 crisis, mapping out new strategies to carry out our mission. We were also awarded emergency funds through the CARES Act and Small Business Administration, which helped our organization meet payroll obligations and support financial stability, albeit short-term.

Our non-profit, guided by an unwavering staff who are as diverse as they are accomplished—including 67% percent people of color in keeping with our

commitment to diversity and inclusion on all levels—has been registered with the NYC Small Business Services as a Women & Minority Operated Business (WMOB) since 2002, and has increased the diversity of its Board, Officers, and Staff.

Recently named “a peerless Board of Directors for Dance in America,” by American Dance Abroad, this year marks our 17th year of non-profit arts programming, an achievement we will celebrate at our annual gala on Monday, October 26th—with a social distance format—which will also bolster our fundraising efforts. We hope you may join us for this exciting event, to be hosted by our Gala Committee Chair, Helen Yee Little, and with whom we are exploring new formats for coming together at safe distances.

My experience as a Young Leader of the French American Foundation, and currently being named by Crain’s New York Business to the inaugural 2020 Notable LGBTQ Leaders and Executives - the only dance professional among this first group of leaders - has allowed me to humble my assumptions of past leadership accomplishments, and learn from leaders in other sectors who are more accomplished, and are in a position to advance the arts through cross-sector collaboration. I am learning all the time, and constantly humbled.