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About 

My storytelling style reflects my personality: quirky, gentle, understated, and silly. I don’t do slice of life.  

I seek the extraordinary in the ordinary as a Director, Movement Artist, and Intimacy Director.

My art and research explore physical expression of identity, challenging social, historical, and gender norms and narratives, historical period movement, and movement as translation and adaptation. 

My yoga practice focuses on cultivating stillness, releasing attachment, and exploring the difference between discomfort and pain.  

 Artistic Highlights:​​

  • Choreographer - Emma - Kentucky Shakespeare, Louisville KY - 2026

  • Director - As You Like It - Set in the 1920s American Circus UofL Louisville KY - 2025

  • Intimacy Choreographer - Anthropology - Sinclair College, Dayton, OH - 2025

  • Director - TL;DR Thelma & Louise Dyke Remix - Pandora Productions, Louisville KY - 2025

  • Intimacy Director certification with Intimacy Directors & Choreographers (IDC) - 2022-present

Scholarly Publications

​"Consciously building bridges: Team-teaching to merge and evolve actor training in Voice & Movement." Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies. December 2022.

"Physical Dramaturgy for Griselda Gambaro's ​Information for Foreigners" in How to Teach a Play edited by Miriam Chirico & Kelly Younger - published by Bloomsbury, January 2020.​

"​What are you looking at? The Complication of the Male Gaze in Fin de Siècle Cancan & Big Spender from Bob Fosse's Sweet Charity." Spring 2018 Journal of Dance Education. 

Notable Past Productions

  • Choreographer - Pride & Prejudice by Kate Hamill- Kentucky Shakespeare, Louisville KY - 2023​​

  • The Movement  - Voice Director ChoreShow Louisville Ballet -  2021

  • Look What the Fire Did - Intimacy Consultant Bunbury Theatre, Louisville KY - 2022

  • Dracula - Intimacy Director - Actors Theatre of Louisville - 2019.  

Photo by Jason Coviello

© 2026 - JA Calvano

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