Rachel
Watson-Jih
rachelwatsonjih@gmail.com
Who is she?...
Dancer. Model. Storyteller. Founder of Blue Morph Collective
Rachel Watson-Jih began her dance training at the age of four in Raleigh, NC. After attending the University of North Carolina School of the Arts summer dance program in 2008, she was recruited to attend school there where she received her BFA in Contemporary Dance in May of 2012. As a student at UNCSA, Rachel worked with Eric Oberdorff, Zane Booker, Elizabeth Parkinson, Helen Simoneau, Juel D. Lane and Nicole Wolcott to name a few.
Since relocating to New York, she’s performed at Lincoln Center Outdoors and Joe’s Pub with Mark Dendy, Karen Harvey Dances, Mari Meade Dance Collective, and apprenticed with Camille A. Brown and Dancers. She made her Public Theater Debut in Eve’s Song Fall 2018 and joined Company SBB in 2019. Her TV and commercial work include ABC’S Manhattan Love Story, PC Richard and Sons commercial, SKYPE, Aetna, Tic Tac and danced with Ryan Heffington in New York Fashion Week, Desigual Couture line. She has been a part of SheThinx, Coach, White House Black Market campaigns and featured in music videos for Vanity Fair and VICE/Black Coffee. More of her commercial print work include Lyft, Knoll, and Target. Rachel is currently a teaching artist with the Alvin Ailey Arts in Education & Community Program, is passionate about creating spaces for healing on her youtube channel - with rach and is the Founder and Artistic Director of Blue Morph Collective. @rachelwatsonjih
my dance...
I create art to process life. This process includes space to express emotions, opportunities for mental renewal, physical release and spiritual transformation.
The primary themes highlighted in my creative practice include addressing trauma, mindfulness and self-reflection, exploring relationships, and creating a safe space for collaborators and audiences to experience communal healing. The idea that we can all be taken on a journey of enlightenment and connection through vulnerable and creative storytelling thrills me.
The methods of this creative journey to be experienced by the audience, collaborators and myself include dance theater and movement, spoken word, music and song, and visual arts all grounded in mindfulness meditation. Cultivating a place of rest in our body, soul and spirit; fostering an oasis-like space for truth telling through these methods are the foundation of my work.
My role as creator, choreographer, performer, writer and artistic director provides the opportunity to advocate for mental health and wholeness in art making; to invite collaborators and the audience to join me in remembering the connection we have in the human experience.
HOMECOMING highlights
Created by Rachel Watson-Jih, HOMECOMING is a dance-theater solo about her relationship and journey with the church. We recognize that our experiences with faith-based spaces all look different – whether you find church as a safe haven, want nothing to do with it, or you find yourself somewhere in between – HOMECOMING is a space for you. A memoir of one person’s journey expressed through movement, words, and music.
Closer - a film by Alfonso Sjogreen and Rachel Watson-Jih
Closer was created to process the loss of my father. It was created to express the healing that occurs when you embrace and celebrate loss and grief while rejoicing in a life well lived - a paradox. This continues to be an invitation for all who watch this film to lament and celebrate this common experience of losing someone you love deeply.
In November 2020, at the height of Covid, Rest Remember Reset was performed at Harbor View Lawn in Brooklyn Bridge Park (safe, distanced, masked) using dance, song, spoken word and visual arts in response to a polarizing presidential election while living in the unprecedented years of a GLOBAL pandemic, quarantine and social isolation, and death.
How do we even begin to reconnect to ourselves, one another, and this city after months of a divisive and violent political landscape? The impact this global pandemic had on live arts had been heartbreaking. So, I invited an audience to participate in guided movement and meditation. We processed, we healed, we experienced communal rejuvenation and connection and ultimately joy.
Model @ We Speak Model Managament
I see modeling as an extension of dance, continued healing movement. A moment I get to express, tell a story through the simplest power stances. I wish to bring love, joy, and light to every set I inhabit, and be a part of the wave of women who feel beautifully connected to their body no matter the size or changes it goes through.
LYFT
COACH
WHITE HOUSE BLACK MARKET
TARGET
UPRUIT
Commercial Work @ Take 3 Talent Agency
This is a place where rest, joy and healing movement exist. Whether you have a sudden urge to dance, need a moment to breathe and someone to do that with or be encouraged through conversation and connection, this is the place for you. It's created with all the love and care in the world and more than anything I want you to feel uplifted and inspired by these moments together. Mucho love as always! LIKE (I like you too). COMMENT. (I wanna hear from you). SUBSCRIBE (come back now, ya hear!)
Photos by: Alfonso Sjogreen