Janessa Clark

  • Lecturer in Theater Arts
Email
janessac@mit.edu
Office
W97-259
Web
janessaclark.com
Headshot of Janessa Clark.

Janessa Clark is a choreographer, filmmaker, and installation artist working across performance, media, and technology. Her work engages choreography in dialogue with film, visual art, architecture, and social practice, using movement to shape relationships between bodies and their environments across stage, screen, and site-specific contexts.

Clark is the founder of KILTERBOX (New York, 2001–2012) and nomadthenewcompany (Stockholm, 2012–2017). Her work has been presented internationally at venues including HERE Arts Center, Vitruvian Thing, Dock 11 Berlin, CounterPULSE, Teatro Victoria, Danscentrum Stockholm, and NCCA St. Petersburg. Clark’s films have screened widely, recently winning Best Dance Film at the Berlin Indie Film Festival. She was nominated for a NY Dance & Performance Awards (the BESSIES) for Outstanding Production with Communion (2021).

As a performer, Clark has worked with Tino Sehgal, Gina Gibney/Gibney Dance, Noemie Lafrance, and Laura Peterson Choreography, among others. She has also collaborated on performative projects with Alexandra Beller, Christopher Matthews, Mary Trunk, and Alex Yudzon. Her work has been supported by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Swedish Arts Council, and Harlem Stage.

Clark’s recent honors include a 2026 Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation Fellowship, a 2025 Harvestworks Technology Immersion Fellowship, and a 2023 BAX Summer Space Grant. She has participated in residencies across the United States and Europe, including CEC ArtsLink’s Back Apartment Residency in St. Petersburg, Moulin/Belle in France, and Lake Studios Berlin.

At MIT, Clark teaches courses in choreography, improvisation, performance media, and dance film. A recent project that she developed with students, VOLTA, explores relationships between embodied performance and technological systems.

Clark holds an MA in Performance Practices and Research from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (London) and a BFA in Dance from Arizona State University.