Choreographer. Performance Artist. Dance Educator.
Jayde Kief is a dance artist, educator, and director based in Chicago. She is fascinated with the mystical, rituals, and archetype.
Born and raised in Cincinnati, Jayde moved to Los Angeles as a young teen pursuing a fully rounded training in the arts. There, she graduated from CHAMPS Charter High School of Multimedia and Arts and studied Dance Science & Dance Pedagogy at Glendale College.
Among her LA adventures, she was heavily involved with The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts. There she participated in the Art of Choreography (Mark Slavkin) project for two years. Personally selected by Paul Cruz (Former Artistic Director of The Wallis), she was honored to perform her dance solo for the Wallis’ Board of Directors. The next year, she was invited to become a founding member of the Wallis’s first resident acting troupe, The Wallis Studio Ensemble (Madeleine Dahm). With the ensemble, she was privileged to devise two socially conscious works of physical theater, Word of Mouth, and Disposable, and perform the shows at The Crisis Art Fest (Arezzo, Italy), and the San Diego Fringe Fest. The company also produced the US premiere of Thebes by Gareth Jandrell, as well as a stage adaptation of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Fall of 2019 she relocated to Chicago, seeking personal growth and the green of the Midwest.
She currently teaches dance to the ages 18months-18years at studios across the city and pursues a rich breadth of hobbies including contra dance, contact improv, rock climbing, and hosting art-themed parties.
Focusing on teaching and choreography, she has proudly served as Rehearsal Mistress for Fairytale’s Nutcracker 2022-2025, was Artistic Director of Fairytale’s Summer Intensive 2023-2025, and Artistic Director for VOLTA Performing Arts’s Debut Nutcracker.
June 2024, she debuted WO.MUN, her first full-length contemporary dance-theater work at Chicago’s oldest running Fringe Festival, RhinoFest.
July 2025, she collaborated with Ultra-Violet Archer to create Movementum, and reprised the performance for 2025’s The Great Gathering at Goeken Land.
July 2026, she showcased a Work In Progress for CREAtOR a physical theater performance with live music.
In August 2026, she will be premiering a work at Tiny Dances (Anna Caffarelli).
She is fascinated with the mystical, rituals, and archetype. Her movement practice is rooted in nervous system regulation, sustainable movement, and anatomy exploration. She will continue to create work inspired by her inner world.
Jayde kief 