Biography
Jessi Fouts (Artistic Director) began dancing when she was three years old. She grew up in Ozark, Missouri, and moved to Kansas City to attend the Conservatory of Music and Dance at University of Missouri Kansas City. In 2008, she received her BFA in Dance Performance. She became an adjunct faculty member for the dance department at UMKC. During this time, she also worked with Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company. In 2009, she began dancing with a local Kansas City company called Quixotic. An opportunity arose for her to perform an aerial dance on the side of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Since the overwhelming success of “Surfaces,” she continued performing aerial acts with Quixotic in multiple venues. Wanting to branch out of the Midwest to find other opportunities, she moved to the west coast in 2010. After working with San Diego Dance Theatre, Fouts moved to Salem in 2011 and has performed and choreographed for PeopleDance and PeopleDance: Body Politic at Willamette University. Last spring she choreographed and performed an aerial net piece in the Aerial Showcase. Fouts began teaching dance technique at Willamette in the fall of 2013.