Sally Jacques
FOUNDER / ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Sally Jacques, founder of Blue Lapis Light, creates site-specific aerial dance works that transform urban spaces by engaging architecture with movement, music and nature.
A native of England with multicultural heritage, Jacques spent her early career studying dance in London at The Place, The Contemporary Dance Center, and the Oval Theatre. She also attended the Lee Strasberg Drama School in New York where she studied improvisation and acting. As a young performer, Jacques hitchhiked throughout Europe with little money, sleeping on beaches, broken down ruins, and even a heated phone booth in the Swiss Alps. Her travels connected her with dedicated social justice activists from around the globe. Inspired by their work, Jacques attended United Nations Conferences, World Social Forums, and peace talks across Europe, Asia, South America, and North America. She worked with The Foundation for a Compassionate Society, the Everardo Foundation, the American Committee to Save Bosnia and with refugee camps in the former-Yugoslavia.
Merging her passions for performance art and social justice, Jacques created siteworks that addressed homelessness (64 Beds, 1989), AIDS (Body Count, 1991), the Gulf War (Inside the Heart, 1991), and environmental protection (Inside the Springs, 1991). As Jacques’ work evolved, her choreography reached new heights. She began by hanging ropes above an empty swimming pool and progressed to rigging aerialists from bridges, power plant stacks and high-rise buildings. The ephemeral sight of dancers carving their bodies across the night sky highlights the beauty and grace that can exist even among the chaos and tragedy of our world.
The recipient of numerous honors, Jacques has been named: Austin Arts Hall of Fame Inductee; Samsung Signature Awardee; Greater Austin YWCA Woman of the Year for Achievement in the Arts; Honorary Lifetime Member of the Golden Key National Honor Society; and recipient of The Susan B. Anthony Award for Peace. She has also received several Austin Critics Table Awards including Best Dance Concert and Best Choreographer. Jacques has been bestowed multiple grants including: Art Matters, NYC; the New Form Regional Initiative Grant with José Luis Bustamante funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Foundation and Andy Warhol Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; Texas Commission on the Arts; and the City of Austin Cultural Arts Division. In addition to being featured on many radio and television programs, Jacques’ work has been studied and published in several magazines and books.
To make dance accessible for all and to foster a sense of community, Jacques taught movement to at-risk teenagers, prison inmates, and senior citizens for many years. Currently, Blue Lapis Light mentors at-risk youth through the Youth Taking Flight program.
Nicole Whiteside
ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Nicole Whiteside loves dance! During her 13 years with Blue Lapis Light she has served as associate artistic director, performer, choreographer, rigger, and instructor. Her classical ballet training began at age two and blossomed into a life-long love of dance. She has studied at esteemed studios including Houston Ballet Academy, High School for Performing and Visual Arts, Austin School of Classical Ballet, and Marsha Woody Academy of Dance. She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a BFA in Dance and has continued dancing in Austin with local companies, including Sharir+Bustamante Danceworks, Sheep Army/Elsewhere Dance Theater, Austin School of Classical Ballet, Cheryl Chaddick Dance Theater, and Little Stolen Moments.
She has received numerous awards from the Austin Critics Table including Best Dancer in 2007 and 2013 and Best Duet in 2008. The Austin Chronicle awarded Little Stolen Moments Best Dance Company in 2010 and Best Creative Use of Three Small Trampolines in 2007. For New Year’s, First Night commissioned her performance, Fabric of the Hour, a silks piece performed inside Austin City Hall. She was nominated Best Choreographer for her aerial choreography with ZACH Theatre’s Metamorphoses by the B. Iden Payne Awards. Nicole manages Blue Lapis Light’s studio where she teaches the art of aerial dance. She has performed aerial silks since 2005, studying with aerialists at New England Center for the Circus Arts, Air Dance Bernasconi, Aircat Aerial Arts, House of Yes, Liza Rose, and FALL. Nicole is driven by collaboration and is eternally grateful for the unique beauty in all people!
JESSICA NERO-MCARTHUR
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Jessica Nero-McArthur is originally from Rome, New York. After years in the financial industry, she decided to pursue her passion for philanthropic work. For the first three years of her nonprofit career, Jessica worked for the AIDS Services of Austin finance department and then with The Arc of the Capital Area as their Operations Manager. At The Arc, Jessica was first exposed to nonprofit arts working with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. After leaving The Arc, Jessica refined her administrative and management skills before joining Blue Lapis Light in August 2017. Since finding her home at Blue Lapis Light, Jessica has fallen in love with the organization and the performing arts.