Jessica Lindberg Coxe began her dance life at the Falls Church School of Ballet taking ballet master classes at the Kennedy Center and spending summers at the Joffrey Ballet School. At 15 she moved on to the Washington Ballet and the Arlington Center for Dance. In 1998 she earned her BFA in Dance Performance with a minor in English Literature from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. She then went to New York City to pursue her performance career with the Martha Graham School, the Oona Haaranen Dance Company and several other independent choreographers, while studying with the Jose Limon Company and the Paul Taylor Dance Company. She also began teaching with Ms. Haaranen at CHILDANCE and earned her certification in The Language of Dance® through the Language of Dance Centre.

A growing curiosity about Labanotation led her to Ohio State’s graduate program where she completed her MFA in Dance Reconstruction/Directing from Score and became certified to teach Labanotation. “Fire Dance,” the work Ms. Lindberg reconstructed from historical accounts, reviews, photographs, lithographs and other artwork of the 1890’s, was originally choreographed and performed by Loïe Fuller in 1896. The performance of the reconstruction, along with the research process, was made into a DVD and produced by the Dance Film Archive housed at The Ohio State University. The Los Angeles Times dubbed Lindberg’s work the “hand book” for historical dance reconstruction. This reconstruction, including the dramatic lighting design by Megan Slayter, has been seen in Columbus, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois, Austin, Texas and, with live orchestra, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. “Fire Dance,” along with a lecture by Ms. Lindberg, was one of the highlights of the Art Institute of Chicago’s 2005 exhibition of works by Toulouse-Lautrec.

After graduating from The Ohio State University, Ms. Lindberg called Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, in Dallas, Texas, home. She instructed the students in the techniques of Martha Graham and Jose Limon as well as ballet, dance composition, history and production. In 2004, she was commissioned to reconstruct, set, and perform a second Loïe Fuller work, “Night,” for MOMENTA Dance Company. The third and final dance, “Lily of the Nile,” from Fuller’s original 1896 concert premiered in Chicago this past August (2007) after three years of extensive research in New York, City and Paris, France.

Ms. Lindberg currently resides near Austin, Texas where she teaches choreography and dance technique at Austin Community College. She has presented master classes in Fuller’s technique for the American College Dance Festival at the University of Texas, Austin and for the students at Austin Community College. She has been a member of the Professional Advisory Committee for the Dance Notation Bureau, is currently co-editor of the Dance Notation Bureau newsletter and a Director for the Language of Dance Centre. She is a member of the Society of Dance History Scholars, Congress on Research in Dance, and the International Council of Kinetography Laban and continues to pursue projects related to Labanotation and dance scholarship.

• Biographies
  • Loïe Fuller
  • Jessica Lindberg
  • Megan Slayter