Introduction
Editorial Series
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Hello, Beautiful Human!
Before you read my bio,
a note from my soul to yours.
As I revised my bio, I realized that one of my most profound accomplishments was not mentioned— Healing!
Healing can take on many forms. It can look different from person to person and situation to situation. Expanding my perception of what healing is and how it can be achieved has in itself increased my own ability to heal. I have overcome and continue to bravely, ferociously, yet still ever so gently face the challenges of my past and present so that I can obtain new levels of personal freedom.
Choosing this path has been one of the best decisions of my life. Placing my art in the driver's seat of this journey has served as an illuminating force providing beauty and clarity to life’s greatest issues. I realized that I am bound to it. To art and to healing. I have always had several interests and talents. By those who found discontent in my duality, I was called a jack of all trades and master of none. But these words were only distractions and lies. Accepting my multiple gifts has become an asset, and I continue to find new levels of mastery for each. But the true beauty has been the journey towards forms of self-collaboration. The integration of my gifts is the sweet spot where I thrive. It is my heightened sense of self where I am liberated.
Knowing that our beliefs propel our actions, it is important for me to share the one that drives my life and my work. I believe that we can all overcome, heal, transform, and be free! My life, my healing, and my transformation have proven this to me time and time again.
Bio
Jinah Parker is a multi-faceted creative force from Buffalo, New York. A dancer since the young age of four, her work as an artist, educator, and wellness practitioner is inspired by the tenacity of Debbie Allen and the endless intellectual curiosity of Katherine
Dunham.
Her work, hailed as "passionate and necessary” by the New York Times, is integrative, combining dance and wellness. This can be seen in her most recent creation, “SHE, a Choreoplay,” a dance and theatrical performance that focuses on ending violence against women
and girls, healing, and empowerment. “With ‘SHE,' Jinah Parker triumphs Over A Culture that Abuses Women” (The Village Voice) and extends beyond the stage with interactive conversations and educational tools. Jinah continues to share this powerful message through SHE university residencies, in which students engage in performance, dance technique and composition classes, wellness workshops, and critical conversation.
“SHE” has been performed with much acclaim at HERE Arts Center, New York Live Arts, Brooklyn Museum, Long Island University, The New York Society for Ethical Culture, Iona College, The University of Kansas, Texas A&M, and upcoming residency at La Manufacture in France.
Jinah’s work has received generous accolades and support from well-known artists such as V formally Eve Ensler, creator of The Vagina Monologues;” actress and best-selling author Gabrielle Union; in addition to support from NBA Hall of famer Grant Hill, Elle magazine, and The National Organization of Women.
Embracing lifelong learning to enhance her craft, Jinah is currently working on her Ph.D. in mind-body medicine, which follows a Master’s Degree in Dance Education from New York University, and a B.A. in Dance from the University at Buffalo, (Phi Beta Kappa). Additionally, she holds a license in Neuro Linguistic Programming under co-founder Richard Bandler and is trained as a practitioner of energy medicine and reflexology. She utilizes these tools along with sound healing, meditation, and breathwork in her
private coaching practice while extending them into her artistic residencies.
Jinah, continues to extend her integration of art and wellness to the community through speaking engagements. She began her speaking career with the American Programing Bureau (APB), the oldest and one of the largest lecture-booking agencies in the country, and currently offers interactive and multimedia presentations about ending sexual violence against women and girls and what she feels recovery and healing can look like for all gender identities from multiple forms of trauma. In a party meets retreat atmosphere, Jinah’s recent creation of BITCH Fest (Breath Ignited Through Creative Healing) offers a space to bitch, breathe, bust a move, and gain practical tools to ignite healing. Her podcast Come Hell or High Water: Stories of Women Overcoming continues her love of storytelling by offering a space for female-identified humans to share these stories as a source of connection and inspiration (mainly for herself, as she is blown away by what each woman has overcome and the creativity, they have dived into to get there). Additionally, Jinah offers a free sound bath each month as a way to extend stress relief and healing to the community at large.
In-between artistic residencies, speaking engagements, coaching, and her doctoral work, Jinah teaches at The Dalton School while working on her second play, “Distorted Beauty.”
Jinah’s full list of work is available on her curriculum vitae. This includes her time as a full-time Buffalo and New York City dance educator with the department of education, along with her choreographic work and experience as a dance artist and performer prior to producing her own work.
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"I see dance as a transformative tool to tackle major social issues while encouraging courageous conversations and action."
— Jinah Parker
Speaking
Jinah offers interactive lectures that spark conversation around countering gender violence, and eliminating trauma from various forms of injustice experienced as a part of our historical and social climate. These dynamic experiences are not just about awareness but a journey through your own consciousness integrating wellness and igniting personal reflection to overcome our most difficult challenges.
"I've already heard from faculty members that it was a. transformative experience for their students. The level of the artistry, as well as the urgent theme, combined to hit home in an emotional way that forever changed them."
— Iona College