Jade “Charon” Robertson – Faculty Spotlight

Jade “Charon” Robertson is an Assistant Professor at Medgar Evers College and a groundbreaking interdisciplinary-artist, choreographer, and filmmaker whose work explores how dance can be used as a ministry to uplift people of color and heal all people. Robertson’s spirited and soulful movement style earned her the coveted Baba Chuck Davis Emerging Choreographer Fellowship at BAM, where she studied in Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, and Ecole Des Sable in Senegal. Her dance film, Recharge, speaking directly to the racial dialogue happening in Black America, received critical acclaim when it premiered online in 2020. She was also awarded the 2022-23 Bill T Jones/ New York Live Arts Fresh Tracks Artist Residency and the 2020 Hicks Choreographer Fellowship from the School of Jacob’s Pillow. She was selected as the CUNY BRESI Award recipient for project Gold Sphere, the 2022 CUNY Faculty Fellowship Publication Program, and the 2023-24 CUNY Career Success Fellow. As a filmmaker, her work has been accepted and awarded in festivals and conferences such as the Cannes World Film Festival, Charlotte Black Film Festival, Manhattan Film Festival, MKE Film Festival, American Dance Festival Movie By Movers, The Outland Dance Project Dance Film Festival, and the National Women in Dance Leadership Conference. In 2016, Charon’s film Reverse, caught the attention of the New York Times, and she and her company were interviewed and featured by the publication and aired on their social media platforms. Her dance vocabulary mixes Contemporary, Modern, Hip Hop, Ballet, Gospel, and movements from the Afro-Diaspora. Charon received an MFA in Dance from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a BA in Dance and Theater from Columbia College Chicago. She recently released a children’s book titled, Gold: Made Just for You.