Jennifer Archibald

Jennifer Archibald is the founder and Artistic Director of the Arch Dance Company and Program Director of ArchCore40 Dance Intensives. She is a graduate of The Ailey School and the Maggie Flanigan Acting Conservatory where she studied the Meisner Technique. Archibald has choreographed for the Atlanta Ballet, Ailey II, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Kansas City Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Ballet Nashville, Grand Rapids Ballet, Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, and Stockholm’s Balletakademien, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, and worked commercially for Tommy Hilfiger, NIKE, and MAC Cosmetics. She was the first female Resident Choreographer in Cincinnati Ballet’s 40-year history for seven years under the direction of Victoria Morgan. In 2024, Archibald is commissioned to create works for Smuin Ballet, Washington Ballet, BalletMet, and is the guest choreographer for Pathways to Performance Reframing the Narrative at the Kennedy Center. She was appointed as Movement Director for Michael Kahn’s closing season for The Oresteia at the Shakespeare Theatre Company. She was also the 2018-19 recipient for the CUNY Dance Initiative Residency.

Archibald’s works have been performed at venues including New York City Center, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Aaron Davis Hall, Jacob’s Pillow Inside|Out Stage, and Central Park’s SummerStage. She was a Choreographic Fellow for AILEY's New Directions Choreography Lab under the direction of Robert Battle. Archibald is a Choreographic Winnings recipient by the Joffrey Ballet. She choreographed Seven, a biographical work about Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee, commissioned by the St. Louis-based MADCO Dance Company. Her work for Stockholm’s Balettakademien, Delilah, toured Scandinavia. 
Archibald is the creator of the Documentary Ballet format, where she creates works rooted in history that bring communities together. The Documentary Ballets are inclusive and communal projects. Breaking’Bricks honors the community of Black Wall Street in Tulsa Oklahoma produced by Tulsa Ballet, while Pittsburgh Ballet produced Sounds of the Sun, which the life of dancer Florence Waren while exploring her experience during the holocaust. Documentary Ballets are theatrical engagements that evolve beyond the stage, with historical education as an integral part of the creative process.

Dance Magazine considers Archibald a major player on the college circuit. She is currently an Acting Lecturer at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. In 2015, she was appointed as Guest Faculty Lecturer to develop the hip hop dance curriculum at Columbia/Barnard College. She is also a guest artist at several universities including the  Fordham/Ailey BFA Program, Purchase College, Princeton, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of South Florida, Goucher College, Columbia College Chicago, Bates College, Boston Conservatory, Point Park University, Miami New World School of the Arts, South Carolina’s Governor’s School of the Arts, Austin University, Oklahoma University, University of Missouri, Jacksonville University, University of Alabama, and New York Tisch University. Internationally, she has taught master classes in Switzerland, Brazil, Bermuda, Canada, Italy, Slovenia, Sweden, France, Russia, Mexico, China, and Ecuador.