Faculty Profile for Jonathan Hansen Pattiwael

Biography Section

Biography and Education

Jonathan "JayWAN" Pattiwael is an Indonesian American dancer, teacher, and choreographer from the Hip-Hop global civilization who creates performances that cross disciplines by remixing their artistic practices in breaking, hip-hop, house, interactive theatre, experimental performance, and contemporary forms to reinforce our place in the world and subvert the social order. Born and raised in Indonesia, JayWAN lives in multiple artistic worlds that reflect the negotiation of their authentic identity as a 21st century US immigrant. Since their professional career began in 2008, they’ve had a unique experience on a large spectrum of the theatric arts including: street performing, site-specific-dance, ensemble concert dance, indigenous Polynesian dance, experimental theatre, immersive-interactive performance, digital video content, and public art interventions.

Holding an MFA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University, JayWAN’s work imagines a hybrid approach between choreographic practice as a source of performative social interactions and the theatrical arts as a medium for social change. As a bicultural Indonesian American artist who lives in two different dance aesthetic worlds (Hip-Hop culture and Contemporary Dance), JayWAN is a master in turning potential creative trainwrecks into dynamic ecosystems that engage abstract and narrative encounters between the physical body and the emergent themes of marginalized peoples. In the past four years, JayWAN served as a lecturer at the University of Dayton and a resident artist at the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company in Ohio. Now in Texas as an assistant professor of dance and creative director at Organi City, JayWAN is interested in investigating the human condition by playfully instigating dances, gestures, authenticity, absurdity, characters, relationships, emotions, menial tasks and original voices to create interdisciplinary performances that help us better understand the human condition. Fresh off a European tour in the Summer of 2023 and recently performed a 22-minute solo fearlessly choreographed with Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Providence at the Festival Entrelaçados Portugal and named "one of the top 8 young emerging choreographers in the world" (Portimão Jornal 2023 quinzenário - Ano 4 - No85). JayWAN is proud to be a street dancer in higher education who actively performs and competes in Hip-Hop jams and international battles.

Jonathan Pattiwael’s choreographies and performances have been commissioned and produced by REST Fest by the Theorists, the Ohio Dance Festival, Austin Dance Project, Texas Woman’s University, FRESH Festival (Now KH Fresh Festival San Francisco), DJ Kid Cut, Kieler Woche, Texas Christian’s University, Heroes Rise Street Dance Academy, Tesla’s SpaceX Station, Urban Creative Arts and Healing Symposium, Xavier University, American College Dance Association, Texas Dance Improvisation Festival, Regional Dance America, Onyx Contemporary Dance Company, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC), SXSW, Alamo Drafthouse, Opening Door Dance Theatre and Festival Dança Contemporânea.

Master of Fine Arts in Dance - Texas Woman's University
Bachelor of Science in Geographic Information Science - Texas State University
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography - Texas State University

Teaching Interests

JayWAN is a teacher-healer in multiple levels of dance disciplines: hip-hop, house, breaking, contemporary dance, choreography, conditioning, improvisation, floorwork, and performance. They are well-versed to teach theory courses like experiential anatomy, dance history, dance pedagogy, world dance, dance and globalization, contemporary issues and trends in dance, American popular dance, producing dance in the professional realm and writing for dance.

Research Interests

JayWAN’s work imagines a hybrid approach between choreographic practice as a source of performative social interactions and the theatrical arts as a medium for social change. As a bicultural Indonesian American artist who lives in two different dance aesthetic worlds (Hip-Hop culture and Contemporary Dance), JayWAN is a master in turning potential creative trainwrecks into dynamic ecosystems that engage abstract and narrative encounters between the physical body and the emergent themes of marginalized peoples. JayWAN is interested in investigating the human condition by playfully instigating dances, gestures, authenticity, absurdity, characters, relationships, emotions, menial tasks and original voices to create interdisciplinary performances that help us better understand the human condition.

The investigation and eventual publication of a written article on the cultural significance of hip-hop dance techniques pertaining to groove and somatics - timeline 2024-25. Possible publication outlets: Research in Dance Education, Journal of Dance Education, Dance Chronicle and Dance Research Journal.

Continuing the qualitative research project of theorizing about strategies, techniques and concepts employed by Breaking (Hip-Hop) practitioners when battling (timeline 2022-27)
The project investigates battling in two primary settings
Contests/competitions
Cyphers or call out battles
The project is international, my vision and hypothesis is that there are underlying universal fundamentals shared by practitioners across the globe and will require recording conversations/interviews with both domestic and international artists.