Founder and “Force of Nature” Jes DeVille is a Nuyorican artist, educator, and administrator with over 16 years of experience working across mediums to choreograph, commission, and present cultural memory projects in the form of site-specific performance installations throughout the SF Bay Area and beyond. Studying Global & Community Health through the lens of Critical Dance Studies at University of California, their work bridges the gap between embodiment and environment using awe as an access-point for social practice. Through a citizen science methodology, ritual-theatre, and community collaboration DeVille’s efforts herald performance as a means of reconciling the relationships we have with ourselves, our communities, and the lands we call Home.

Jes’ mission of using a social permaculture framework to design for public wellness is supported by an EcoTherapy certificate from The Earthbody Institute and a Permaculture Design Certification from Occidental Arts & Ecology. Jes is a member of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science as well as the American Circus Alliance. They continue to tour internationally, sharing all-ages learning journeys alongside performance works for stage and screen. Notable projects include choreographing and performing for PBS series “Kids Do Science”, co-producing Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival’s multi-year free children’s circus Circus Quirkus; grant adjudication for SFAC’s Cultural Equity Grant; co-curating outdoor activations such as SF Trolley Dances 2019-2021, managing RAWdance’s PORTAL – the first nomadic dance exhibition to be hosted at TJPA Salesforce Park, and reclaiming Hunters Point PG&E land through performing arts with Kristin Damrow & Co. for Intentional Shift in 2021. Jes is grateful to be uplifted as a regenerative artist of Design Science Studio’s inaugural cohort and as a 2021 Artist in Residence (AiR) and Aerial Arts Educator for vertical-dance company Bandaloop.