Jeff Janisheski

Jeff Janisheski joined NIDA as Head of Acting in 2012 with a formidable list of accomplishments in the field of theatre, education and training. He has a performance background as an actor, choreographer, director and producer and a long history of collaboration with luminaries such as Anne Bogart and the SITI Company.

He focuses extensively on international collaborations: over the past twenty years he has taught and directed in Australia, England, Japan, Korea, Russia, Vietnam and the US. From 2008-2011, Jeff was Artistic Director of the National Theater Institute at the Tony Award-winning Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut, America’s preeminent organisation dedicated to the development of new plays and music theatre. From 2004-2008, Jeff was Associate Artistic Director at New York’s Classic Stage Company where he created their Young Company outreach program.

Jeff holds an MFA in Directing from Columbia University and trained in Japan for over three years with butoh’s co-creator Kazuo Ohno. He co-founded and co-directed the biennial New York International Butoh Festival; from 2003-2007 he presented the work of over fifty butoh-inspired artists from Europe, Japan, South America and the US.

He is a recipient of the Theater Communications Group New Generations/Future Leaders fellowship.