started performing with the University's company as well as the Santa Barbara Dance Company.
However, upon my graduation, I once again found myself searching for who I was. My BA in Bio-Psychology wasn't enough to get a 'real job,' so I started pursuing other academic areas. While I was going to nursing school in San Francisco, a friend of mine took me to an underground, tribal fusion bellydance show. I immediately was obsessed with this form of dance. I had to have more... the rest is history. I believe I found tribal fusion bellydance about 15 years ago and have never really 'left.'
CG: Your day job is that of an oncology nurse. How has that affected your views on making art?
JF: My job is fucking hard. I am physically, emotionally and mentally drained by the end of the day. The balance of art and the difficulty of what I do is not only necessary, but the ONLY way I can really process what I have witnessed in my 13 years of being an oncology nurse.
Art, dance and film give me a way to express what I am going through, what my patients are going through and all of the feelings that weigh my chest down. I can say so much more with movement, with imagery, with creating a painting than I could ever express with words. I use both hemispheres of my brain and the art seems to calm me, balance me, and keep me from burning out.
CG: Let's about your film trilogy. How did the idea come to you?
JF: I was toying around with the idea of making a dance film for many years but put it on the shelf until I was guest performing with the San Francisco City College Dance Company. I found myself in a theatre with an original Diego Rivera mural. I was mesmerized.
This mural expressed so much history, so much pain, love, suffering ... it expressed more than anything I had ever seen.
The proximity of the mural to the stage gave me the idea for a three part 'dance piece'about cancer and three elements (dust, blood, and water) just came to me. A dance career is so fleeting. Our art is so temporary. We record a dance performance, but a straight recording is NEVER as amazing as it is to witness in person. The feeling doesn't translate. Mulling this transience inspire me to make my three part dance piece a true film... something lasting. The pieces started falling into place and when the Universe lined things up as amazingly as it did for me to make Triptych happen, I knew I was on the right path.
CG: How important is collaboration to your work, whether it be dance or filmmaking? Did the Trilogy develop differently than you'd envisioned as you've collaborated with other artists? If so, are you pleased by the results?
JF: Collaboration was essential to the creation of my vision. Each artist - pioneers of tribal fusion, bellydancers, amazing contemporary dancers, and my 'secret weapon' Micah Van Hove (Director of Photography) - brought a part of themselves to the project and made it so unique and beautiful.
They donated their time and talent to my vision, which did end up developing differently than I had envisioned and made this film more amazing than I ever could have imagined.
CG: How does Oakland factor into your work?
JF: I have lived here in Oakland for 17 years of my life. I love Oakland for its diversity, its toughness, and its unique flavor of artists who have found lofts and warehouses to turn into magical places for people to dance and make art.
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