Wendy Jehlen (Founder/Artistic Director) is a storyteller whose unique approach to movement incorporates elements of a wide range of movement styles including Bharata Natyam, Odissi and Kuchipudi; Capoeira, Kalaripayattu, West African dance, Butoh, and wide-range of Contemporary dance styles. Jehlen’s emotionally powerful choreography has been performed across the United States, Europe, India and in Japan.
Past works include The Knocking Within (2012), an evening-length duet on a disintegrating relationship; Forest (2010), a journey through the archetypal forest; The Moth (2007), commissioned by the Jahan-e-Khusrau festival in Delhi; He Who Burns (2006), a trio on the figure of Iblis (Satan); Dragon (2005), based on a Japanese folk tale about a girl who becomes a water dragon; Breathing Space (2003), a collaboration with Japanese choreographer Hikari Baba in Tokyo; Crane (2002), based on images from Japanese Buddhist poetry; Haaaa (2002), inspired by the experience of childbirth; and Becoming Fire (1998), an evening length work exploring texts from the Sufi traditions of Iran and South Asia.
Jehlen has received funding from the Artist Grants Program of the Massachusetts Cultural Council (2001, 2003),the Senior Performing Artist Fellowship program of the American Institute of Indian Studies (2001), the Ford Foundation/Arts International (1996), the Puffin Foundation (2001), the Tokyo American Center (2002), the National Endowment for the Arts(2005), the Fulbright program/United States Educational Foundation in India (2005-2006, the National School of Drama (2006, 2011, 2013), the Alliance Francaise de Madras (2006), the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (2011) and the Consulate General of Chennai (2011), among others.
Jehlen was a 2011-2012 Brother Thomas Fellow of the Boston Foundation, a 2012-2013 Choreography Fellow of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a 2013-2014 Creative Artist Fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies, a 2013 Boston Dance Alliance Retreat and Rehearsal Fellowship recipient and a recipient of a 2012-2013 Boston University Jewish Cultural Endowment grant.