Publications
As a scholar, Jehbreal combines the study of ballet, Shakespeare, music, and race in their early modern contexts to analyze their compositional and cosmological connection to present day art making. He uses his findings as source material for his own artistic creations.
His most recent research focuses on the compositional and cosmological influences of al-Andalus and Bukôngo on his interests listed above, specifically the Afro-Islamic roots of classical ballet.
Written Publications
Antiracism in Ballet Teaching
This chapter traces the roots of ballet to the Moorish and Islamic cultures that dominated what is now southern Spain from 711 CE to 1492 CE, as well as to Bukôngo craft and compositional systems. In the seventeenth century, when the courts of Louis XIII and XIV absorbed and depicted Spanish art and culture, they appropriated the Sarabande, taken from the Spanish theater’s Zarabanda. As a result, historians and teachers of ballet must consider a wider frame when discussing the origins of this art form. With this reframing of ballet history, Jehbreal Muhammad Jackson offers teachers of both lecture and studio classes a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of ballet’s embodied geometries. As Jackson describes, the repetition and discipline that is required to enact these geometries point to Andalusi and Bukôngo cultures where art, science, religion, and philosophy all worked in tandem toward understanding the human relationship to the cosmos.
Ballet Pedagogy and a “Hard Re-Set”: Perspectives on Equitable and Inclusive Teaching Practices - In collaboration with Kate Mattingly, Keesha Beckford, Zena Bibler, Paige Cunningham, and Iyun Ashani Harrison
"In her scholarship on pedagogy, Gloria Ladson-Billings describes COVID-19 as a call to re-set education using a more culturally relevant pedagogy. As ballet teachers and researchers working in higher education and pre-professional settings, we teach a form of dance often associated with the characteristics of white supremacy. Through this collaborative institutional ethnography, we generated methods for posing questions, critiquing choices, and imagining alternatives to create more equitable educational settings. We connect the
process of addressing and challenging systemic exclusions in ballet with tangible steps toward creating more inclusive classes and performances that value the joy and pleasure in moving."
Holy Palmer’s Kiss: Love, Trust, and Wisdom in John Neumeier’s Romeo & Juliet Ballet
In “Holy Palmer’s Kiss: Love, Trust, and Wisdom in John Neumeier’s Romeo & Juliet Ballet” Jehbreal and his mentor Julia Reinhard Lupton look at the work of choreographer, John Neumeier. They compare his adaptation with the play and with other productions of the famed story of the star crossed lovers in a collection titled “Romeo and Juliet, Adaptation, and the Arts: ‘Cut Him Out in Little Stars.’ ”
CANON The Cinematic Story Ballet (Cineballet) & How I Learned to Create Cognitive Characters from William Shakespeare
Jehbreal’s early research is documented in his MFA thesis CANON The Cinematic Story Ballet (Cineballet): & How I Learned to Create Cognitive Characters from William Shakespeare. Along with his research of Shakespeare and cognition, Jehbreal talks about how he made CANON as a result of his findings.
Shakespeare and Black Life: Actor Jeremie Harris in Conversation with Jehbreal Muhammad Jackson
Recorded April 22, 2021
In this public conversation, Jeremie Harris discusses his role as Claudio in New York Public Theatre’s 2019 production of Much Ado About Nothing, which featured an all-Black cast and was set in Atlanta during Stacy Abrams’ campaign for governor of Georgia.