Jill B. Ware

Background

About Jill B. Ware

As a movement artist, researcher, and business owner, I have deep knowledge and experience in integrating movement and technology through production, performance, teaching, and content creation. I have had a productive history as a teacher of ballet, modern, improvisation, and other dance forms with Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Dance where I notably led students in projects based in video web production, motion capture, and virtual reality. I have also had a long engagement as a professional dancer, and Artistic Associate with Amaranth Arts, a contemporary dance company that tours both nationally and internationally. In addition to performing, I’ve choreographed numerous repertory works for Amaranth Arts with prominent works “Imprint” performed at the Arezzo Festival in Arezzo, Italy, and “Nacer de Nuevo” performed in Los Angeles, CA to a favorable review in the LA Times. I bring decades of experience in dance to the embodied virtual reality (EVR) field through my understanding of how movement translates via screens and in immersive spaces, and now I use that experience to create EVR for medical education. It’s with this level of expertise that I contribute to the embodied virtual reality (EVR) experiences of Embodied Empathy, LLC. Embodied Empathy began as a research project and collaboration in 2016 between new media artist, John Blatter, and myself, centered on bringing movement and technology together through embodied virtual reality (EVR). I have participated in TEDxRVA as both a speaker, and as a presenter in the immersive galleries concerning Embodied Empathy’s work with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients where we created three embodied virtual reality (EVR) immersive experiences of early, mid, and late stage patients with the intention of providing these experiences for all staff and caregivers of the patients who were treated at Virginia Commonwealth University’s NOW center in a collaboration with VCU’s Department of Neurology. In 2021, we formed Embodied Empathy, LLC to commercialize our arts and medicine work. Adding to my movement expertise, in 2022 I received my Certified Personal Training (CPT) certificate from the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), and started a fitness coaching business, Today in Fitness, that brings vital information to deconditioned clients looking to start or restart their fitness and health journeys. I am currently enrolled in a Nutrition Coaching program with NASM with certification projected for fall 2022.