Jacob Jonas (American, b. 1992)
Raised by concrete and the Pacific Ocean. A product of divorce. An outlier in academia, displaced and repositioned into special education. Forced away from the traditional path. Movement became identity. A company, a family—for belonging. A blank canvas, home. Overcoming illness, understanding health. The work is medicine. Nature, a necessity.
A disruptor by nature, Jonas has collaborated with a spectrum of visionary artists and brands, from Kanye West to Elton John, Rosalía, SZA, Sia, Vanessa Beecroft, and Alejandro Iñárritu. His projects include the globally acclaimed films.dance, a series of over 40 short films uniting artists from 25 countries, and #CamerasandDancers, a monthly Instameet bridging dance, photography, and architecture with institutions like The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Zaha Hadid Architects.
Born in Santa Monica, Jacob Jonas began his journey as a street performer, skateboarding along the Venice Beach Boardwalk. At 13, he joined The Calypso Tumblers, legends of acrobatics and street theater, under the directorship of Raymond Bartlett from Saint Kitts. Touring internationally to busker festivals, Jonas absorbed the discipline of the streets and the art of performance.
At 21, Jonas co-founded Jacob Jonas The Company with partner Jill Wilson and lighting designer Will Adashek, a nonprofit rooted in the intersection of dance, science, and community. By 24, he became the youngest artist to present work at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. His career has since traversed institutions and landmarks, including Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Hollywood Bowl, The Getty Museum, The Music Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and more.
Jonas’s work challenges boundaries, living at the confluence of somatic innovation, architecture, and environmental consciousness. His technique, The System, is a fusion of movement, therapy, and creation, designed as a pathway for healing and expression. As a stage four cancer survivor, Jonas draws on personal resilience to explore the body as both a site of conflict and renewal.
Jacob Jonas’s art exists in dualities—rooted in rebellion and disruption, yet celebrated in the canon of contemporary culture. His work is raw yet refined, intimate yet universal, a testament to the transformative power of movement, nature, and collaboration.
