Jasmine Ellis

Jasmine Ellis is a Canadian choreographer and film director based out of Munich, Germany. A graduate of Etobicoke School of the Arts, The School of Toronto Dance Theatre and Codarts Rotterdam Conservatory, she has worked professionally in dance as a performer and choreographer since 2006. Ellis is an award–winning film director and Artistic Director of Bad Posture Productions, and is regularly commissioned for creating stage works nationally and internationally. 

Ellis’s uncategorised approach to movement, body language, text and music is the basis of her artistic approach in which humour, vulnerability and familiarity are woven together to create unexpected worlds. 

Ellis receives regular funding for independent productions, in addition to receiving commissions for creating stage works nationally and internationally. Works include Empathy (2018) which was remounted at the Rodeo Festival (Munich); backand until (2018) as Resident Choreographer at Springboard Danse Montreal (Canada); the short film lockdown (2020), created in collaboration with LajaMartin - Physical Dance Theater Company (USA); and everything blue (2020), created with Evandro Pedroni (Vienna/Brazil).

Ellis created a trilogy of three full-length productions about loneliness between 2019-2020:  Lucas is lonely (2019) premiered in Winnipeg, Canada presented by Winnipeg's Contemporary Dancers; Toni is lonely (2019) was realized as part of DANCE Festival in cooperation with Residenztheater and supported by The Canada Council for the Arts; the hybrid theater-film version Is Susan lonely? (2020) was created and streamed online. 

In 2021, Ellis has received funding from The Canada Council for the Arts to create a short film version of the stage production of Toni is Lonely, as well as the #takecare grant from Fonds Darstellende Künste. In 2021 she premiered the project skin hunger at HochX in Munich, which was accompanied by a radio show on the same topic at Ideas by CBC Canada. In summer of 2022, Ellis collaborated with Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz and Bayerisches Junior Ballet München for her project INSIDE THE 1972 BOXING RING, presented at the 50th anniversary of the Munich 1972 Olympic Games - Festival.

The NPN-Stepping Out grant, awarded to Jasmine Ellis Projects in both 2021 and 2022,  facilitated the exploration of the possibilities of dance on film through multiple projects including Looking Closely (2021), which resulted in the creation of Fringe and Deerman (yet to be released), and two additional film projects that will be undertaken in 2023.

Reality Warping, a co-production with ARGEkultur in Salzburg and supported by the cultural department of the City of Munich and BLZT premiered at HochX Munich in 2023 and at Sommerszene Festival / ARGEkultur in Salzburg.

The Munich Department of Culture approved the funding for Ellis' new creation Everything That Is Wrong With Me, which will premiere in fall 2024.

As an active member of Munich's independent dance scene, Ellis leads the Bad Lemons Project, which promotes a vibrant and collaborative community through professional training, exchanges, and research projects. Jasmine Ellis has been leading the OASIS project and the T29-dance space with Bad Lemons Project and together with the TanzQuelle and FokusTanz initiatives since 2022.