Roberta Jean

Resident 23 March – 2 April 2026

Roberta Jean's residency will be early-stage research and development for a new performance work.

Roberta and collaborators will explore memory and the limits of human knowledge through the lens of the Block Universe Theory, which imagines time as a unified field in which past, present, and future coexist.

Through movement practice and sound, they will explore ways of knowing, diverse forms of knowledge and intelligence, moving beyond the purely cognitive to include embodied intelligence, somatic memory, and the ways in which memories are held and expressed through the body. They will also consider indigenous knowledge, wisdom, and what gets lost in translation between artificial intelligence and the dancing body.

Roberta is a critically acclaimed choreographer making both film and live performance. She works collaboratively with artists and makers from across disciplines to produce dances for a diverse range of contexts. Her choreography is centred around interdisciplinary poetics, is led by inquiry and is heavily informed by cultural changes and research.

She has recently been awarded a Jerwood Choreographic Research Bursary, she is a 2020 winner of the Bonnie Bird Choreographic Development Award, a 2019 finalist at Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Screen.dance and New Renaissance Film Festival. She is a 2018 finalist for the Total Theatre and The Place Dance Award. Roberta has been artist in residence at Critical Path Laboratory in Sydney, Australia, Dance Limerick in Ireland, Dance City in Newcastle, Dance Base in Edinburgh, Fabric Dance and Dartington in Devon. She has presented her work as part of the Made In Scotland Showcase, at Sadler’s Wells, Tanzmesse, Nottdance, Greenwich Dance Agency and Tramway amongst others.

Follow Roberta on Instagram/byrobertajean

Image from Ways of Being by Roberta Jean
Photo - Emli Bendixen. Dance artist - Stephanie McMann