Associate Artistic Director: JESSICA DEVEREUX
Involved in various ways with facilitating community participation, dance and choreographic skill development, and the creation and direction of performances.
Jess is a passionate artist, choreographer, performer and facilitator of dance. Known for her warmth and skill in working collaboratively, Jess nimbly traverses between small-scale, intimate creative processes to large-scale, community and participatory works. She is drawn to projects that are inclusive and joyous, so she was drawn to Tracks. Jess trained at the Victorian College of the Arts (BA Dance ‘04 and 1st class Honours ‘08.) Jess visited Darwin on secondment to observe the making of Track's 'Lipstick & Ochre' and soon after, took up the role of Dance Animateur.
Jess began Tracks' Choreographic Program in 2009, and over many years facilitated emerging NT dance-makers and participants to develop their dance practice and choreographic skill. Jess was a key collaborator on Tracks’ major performance seasons '09 -'14, initiated experimental dance film projects, taught workshops and created performances in Darwin schools, and worked in remote Indigenous community Lajamanu '09-'14 on Milpirri, cementing her commitment to collaborative, relational practice.
Jess is strongly influenced by her work alongside Bec Reid, with whom she has worked for many years as a performer, collaborator and mentee. Jess was Community Enrichment Coordinator at Dancenorth in ‘17 and Dance Leader on Melbourne’s Moomba Parade ‘19 and '20. In smaller, intimate studio projects, Jess has developed choreographic work with Stompin (My Heart Is a Hall '13), Dirty Feet (with Rob McCredie) and dance video experiments with Zoe Scoglio. She was rehearsal director for Gary Lang's Mokuy '14 and performed in Madeleine Flynn & Tim Humphrey's Megaphone Project at Ansan Festival, South Korea ‘16.
As an independent artist, Jess has developed and performed works ‘Silver Sky’ Darwin Festival ‘12 and ‘Beautiful Noise’ Darwin Festival ’16, a music and dance collaboration with Kris Keogh and a team of dancers from around Australia. Jess participated in a transitroy dance exchange to Slovenia and Croatia (Dance Satellite, produced by Britt Guy '14.) More recently, she choreographed 'The Hypotheticals' by Sarah Reuben & Jeffry Jay Fowler, premiering at Darwin Festival '21, and provided Movement Direction/ Outside Eye on James Mangohig's 'Hymns for the Witching Hour' '23.
Jess has contributed to artist panels for National Dance Forum, Australia Council for the Arts, Next Wave’s Curatorial Advisory Panel, and co-curator on Dance Speaks - a performance-lecture series in Melbourne. She has received arts funds from Ozco, Arts NT and Artback to develop and make performance works, and been awarded Artist Residencies at Fling NSW, Territory Wildlife Park NT, Tasdance TAS and Heritage Hill VIC. Alongside Venaska Cheliah, Jess is developing a new work 'Mess of a Mudrā,' and is an active member of Darwin's 'Sweat Collective' led by Creative Accomplice.
In 2022 Jess stepped into the role of Associate Artistic Director at Tracks.
Explore Futher
Research and Development Programs