Profile
Jade is a dancer, actor and scholar of performance who works to create connections between performance, cultural production, education and local community. She completed a Master's degree in Latin American Studies in 2006 and is currently a PhD candidate at UC San Diego in the Department of Theater and Dance. She specializes in Caribbean and US Latina/o theater and performance and is currently teaching a class called Latinas in Film. As a scholar and a performer she believes in the importance of body-centered knowledge, that is, the value of information that is learned and conveyed not just through texts, but also through embodied practices, particularly in relationship to historically oppressed communities. The current title of her dissertation is “Speaking Bodies and Speaking the Body: Body Bilinguality in Latina/o Performance” and it explores the intersection between bilingual communities, embodied practices and performance. Jade has a BA in Biology and Theatre Arts from UC Santa Cruz and she has been performing since she moved to California from Puerto Rico as a child. She has acted in dozens of productions including the Vagina Monologues with Eve Ensler in San Francisco, and the world premiere of Cherrié Moraga's Shadow of a Man. In 2008 she created a piece for Cimarronaje with Las Bomberas de la Bahia and other women from Puerto Rico and the diaspora. In 2009 Jade conceived, directed, and performed in La Movida, an all women's dance performance in San Diego. At UC San Diego she has worked with Latino undergraduates as a director and facilitator for performance projects focused on Latina/o experiences and interests. She has also served as an active member of the Arts Advisory Committee at San Diego's Centro Cultural de la Raza since 2007.
