Jeanefer Jean-Charles is an acclaimed and award-winning movement director and choreographer whose work has broken World Records, taken her all over the world and has featured contemporary, ballet and hip hop, all in one show. Her love of dance started while watching Pans People on Top of the Pops and led her to pursue her passion from ten-years-old after a chance part in a West End production. She explains why treating people with respect has served her well.

January/February 2010

Jeanefer Jean Charles

I got into dancing from an early age. While growing up in Paddington, London, I used to watch dance troupes on TV like Arlene Phillips’s Hot Gossip and Pans People on Top of The Pops. I was always dancing in my front room. Anytime dance was on TV the family was instructed to call me and I would stand in front of the box and dance.

I was surrounded by music at home. I used to listen to Reggae Time with the family every Sunday and was drawn to jazz and soul, the physicality of the music. From a very early age I knew I wanted to teach and create dance.

I would talk to my parents about feeling that I wanted to do dance. When I was ten my mum found out that the producers of Finian’s Rainbow in the West End were looking for a black girl. That was the start for me.

I went to rehearsals every week with my sister and I was introduced to ballet and jazz. After the production I kept in touch with one or two of the adults who looked after me and directed me to classes.

When I was 12, at my secondary school, for the first time we got a dance teacher. I would always try and escape from my classes to dance and work with her. Her name was Jennifer Frankel. She was a good role model. She told me that I had the talent and that I needed to believe in it.

I then started to go to Weekend Arts College [now the WAC Performing Arts and Media College] run by Celia Greenwood. These two developments and people have been key throughout my career.

In my late teens I knew I couldn’t just go to a professional training college and had to do a performing arts degree. I did that at Middlesex University and then did my teacher training post grad qualification.

My teaching ability was tested quite young. At school, in the sixth form, when my dance teacher decided I was good enough, she allowed me to take over some of her dance classes when she was away. At WAC, when I had grown out of the youth group, I was asked to come back to work on the movement side with the director.

When I finished my teacher training it made sense to apply for a teaching job. I ended up working in a tough south London school teaching dance. It was the first time they had a dancing department. Many of the children’s parents ran market stalls and expected their children to do the same. Dance and theatre opened up their world. It was both tough and great, but after three-and-a-half years the system at the school was working against everything I believed in education. I felt unsupported and so I resigned.

In 1990, after I left teaching, I formed my own jazz dance company Bullies Ballerinas with Pearl Jordan. I did various commercial and small company work for four years. I created my first production with Dance Umbrella and the company ran for ten years. We also worked internationally but being project funded and not core funded by the Arts Council was an issue.

Pearl left to raise a family so I thought I’d go it alone as a choreographer. Then I lost my dad and sister which slowed me down for about three years. Around five years ago I went to see June Gamble, a life coach as I wanted to be more creative and less caught up in administrative stuff that was taking up 75 per cent of my time with only 25 per cent being spent creatively.

Within three months of starting my sessions with the life coach I got Big Dance, choreographing over 800 dancers to perform at Trafalgar Square. I worked with them for six months and we set a World Record. This enabled me to use all of my experience. After that I felt that I was truly on the right path and I want to always be 75 per cent creative.

What I’ve learned over the years is that you’ve got to get on with and respect people. That’s why I’m where I am now. You have to put your ego to one side and look at the bigger picture and realise that everyone deserves a chance. It isn’t all about you.

Watch Jeanefer’s choreography at www.jeanefer.com

Biography: Jeanefer Jean-Charles
Choreography credits include the World Record-breaking Big Dance on Trafalgar Square (BBC TV),Rosa Moments and It’s A Boy (UK Tours), Beijing Cultural Olympic Festival with Kinetika Carnival Arts, the unveiling of Mandela’s Statue in Parliament Square, Walt Disney’s remake of The Parent Trap, the Young Vic’s A Raisin in the Sun, Theatre Centre’s A Spell of Cold Weather and Unicorn Theatre’s Journey to the River Sea. Jeanefer received the prestigious Rayne Fellowship Award for choreographers to develop her project Lads & Dads Move! and is currently working with the Roundhouse Theatre Company and PegasusTheatre, Oxford. Forthcoming productions include Bolero for Big Dance 2010 and Garbage King at the Unicorn Theatre in autumn 2010.

For more details on Jeanefer's work please contact Joe Bates on 020 7724 1616 or email joe@mortonbates.com

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