Jack Ferver
Jack Ferver (born 1979) is an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and professor. They are known for their dance-theatre shows that examine trauma, otherness, and queerness, as well as for their portrayal of a character known as the Little Lad in a 2007 Berries and Cream Starburst commercial. Upon graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy, Ferver moved to New York City and appeared in their first film role in Outside Providence (1999). After acting in film, television, and theater for several years, Ferver began performing their own full-length dance pieces in 2007. Their work with artist Marc Swanson on the performance piece Chambre in the mid-2010s earned a nomination at the 2016 Bessie Awards. Ferver teaches at Bard College and cohosts a podcast about the dance world.
Jack Ferver | |
|---|---|
 Ferver in 2015 | |
| Born | 1979 (age 46–47)[1] |
| Alma mater | Interlochen Arts Academy |
| Known for | Choreography |
| Website | Official website  |
Jack Ferver (born 1979)[1] is an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and professor. They are known for their dance-theatre shows that examine trauma, otherness, and queerness, as well as for their portrayal of a character known as the Little Lad in a 2007 Berries and Cream Starburst commercial.
Upon graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy, Ferver moved to New York City and appeared in their first film role in Outside Providence (1999). After acting in film, television, and theater for several years, Ferver began performing their own full-length dance pieces in 2007. Their work with artist Marc Swanson on the performance piece Chambre in the mid-2010s earned a nomination at the 2016 Bessie Awards. Ferver teaches at Bard College and cohosts a podcast about the dance world.
Early life
[edit]Jack Ferver grew up in rural Wisconsin, U.S., first in Prairie du Sac and later in Sauk City, where they experienced harassment and bullying throughout their youth as "a little gay kid".[2][3] Ferver began working with a teacher who was influenced by Martha Graham when they were 13.[4] They received a scholarship to Interlochen Arts Academy for their senior year of high school, where they trained and met future collaborator Reid Bartelme.[4][5][6]
Career
[edit]After attending Interlochen, Ferver moved to New York City.[5] In 1997, intending to dance and act, Ferver was hired to perform in several commercials as well as for their first film role in Outside Providence (1999).[4][7] Ferver hoped to land more film roles but had trouble finding a talent agent and recalled rejection from casting directors who had trouble viewing them as a young person, despite being eighteen years old when Outside Providence was filmed.[4][7] Around this time, they began to take classes at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance.[4]
Ferver continued to appear onstage and act in television and film. In 1999, they performed in the premiere of Betty's Summer Vacation at Playwrights Horizons. In 2000, they appeared on several episodes of the Comedy Central TV series Strangers with Candy.[8][9] Throughout the early and mid-2000s, Ferver performed in theater, film, and television, appearing in plays in New York, Washington, D.C., and San Diego.[10][11][12] In 2001, they appeared in the film Way Off Broadway and in 2005 they performed in the New York Musical Theatre Festival adaptation of the film But I'm a Cheerleader.[13][14] With the QWAN Company, which Ferver founded, they created and performed in satirical live readings of the films Notes on a Scandal and Black Swan titled Notes!!! (2010) and Swan!!! (2011), respectively.[15][16][17]
In 2007, Ferver began performing full-length dance pieces with their work When We Were Young and Filled with Fear.[18] In the late 2000s, they presented their work at Dixon Place (When We Were Young and Meat), Danspace Project (Death Is Certain), and Abrons Arts Center (A Movie Star Needs a Movie), the latter as part of the American Realness Festival.[19][20] As a dancer and choreographer, Ferver has collaborated with Interlochen classmate Bartelme, dramaturg Joshua Lubin-Levy, and artist Marc Swanson.[6][21][22][23] Chambre, one of Ferver's pieces with Swanson, was nominated in 2016 for a Bessie Award.[24]
Ferver appeared as a character known as the Little Lad in a 2007 commercial for Berries and Cream Starburst candies.[25] The advertisement, which features Ferver performing a simple dance while singing "Berries and cream!", spread widely and generated parodies and mashups on YouTube that year, as did a second video in which Ferver as the Lad led a tutorial for the dance.[26] Ferver briefly revived the character in late 2021 when the tutorial video was reposted to TikTok by podcast host Justin McElroy and the Little Lad's dance became a popular TikTok trend.[26][27]
As of 2020, Ferver taught at Bard College and was also a visiting professor at New York University.[28] In addition to their dance work, Ferver has appeared in other movies and TV shows, including Gayby (2012) and High Maintenance (2016).[29][30] Ferver choreographed and appeared as Tinker Bell in Bard College's 2018 production of Leonard Bernstein's musical Peter Pan.[31] They also signed on in 2019 to choreograph Jeremy O. Harris's play A Boy's Company Presents: 'Tell Me If I'm Hurting You', but the show was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[28] Ferver choreographed the off-Broadway musical The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse at Signature Theatre Company in 2025.[32]
Ferver and Bartelme, who had both been fellows at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, began hosting the podcast What's Going On with Dance and Stuff in 2017, with a consistent rule of releasing an episode every Friday.[6][33] Topics discussed, which often tend to be "more about the 'stuff' than the 'dance,'" according to Dance Magazine, include contemporary dance performances, books, Martha Graham, astrology, and Ferver and Bartelme's own work.[6][33]
Style
[edit]Ferver is most known for their dance-theatre shows that examine trauma, otherness, and queerness.[34] In interviews, Ferver has cited Martha Graham and her autobiography Blood Memory as a particular influence in their exploration of concepts like "contraction and release", dark facets of the human psyche, as well as ritual and repetition.[3] Expression of gender and sexuality are central themes throughout Ferver's work. Their piece Two Alike, described as a "psycho-sexual semi-autobiographical choreographic piece" explored their childhood through repetition.[2] In Everything Is Imaginable, Ferver choreographed four soloists to "collectively exhume their personal queer histories and celebrate their childhood icons."[35]
Personal life
[edit]In 2008, Ferver lived in Brooklyn, New York.[25] Their partner is filmmaker and artist Jeremy Jacob.[6][36]
Performances
[edit]Dance
[edit]| Year[a] | Title | Venue[a] | Role | Notes[37] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | When We Were Young and Filled with Fear | Dixon Place | Choreographer, dancer | [19] |
| 2008 | Meat: A Diptych | Dixon Place | Choreographer, dancer | [19] |
| 2009 | Death Is Certain | Danspace Project | Choreographer, dancer | [19] |
| A Movie Star Needs a Movie | Abrons Arts Center | Choreographer, dancer | [20] | |
| 2010 | Rumble Ghost | Performance Space 122 | Writer, choreographer, dancer | [38] |
| 2011 | Two Alike | Contemporary Arts Museum Houston | Writer, choreographer, dancer | [39] |
| Me, Michelle | Museum of Arts and Design | Choreographer, dancer | [40] | |
| 2012 | Mon, Ma, Mes | French Institute Alliance Française | Creator, performer | [41] |
| 2013 | All of a Sudden | Abrons Arts Center | Choreographer, dancer | [42] |
| 2014 | Chambre | Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts | Choreographer, dancer | [43] |
| 2015 | Night Light Bright Light | Abrons Arts Center | Choreographer, dancer | [44] |
| 2016 | I Want You to Want Me | The Kitchen | Writer, choreographer, dancer | [45] |
| 2018 | Everything Is Imaginable | New York Live Arts | Choreographer, dancer | [35] |
| 2020 | Nowhere Apparent | New York Public Library for the Performing Arts | Choreographer, dancer | [46] |
| 2022 | Is Global Warming Camp? and Other Forms of Theatrical Distance for the End of the World | Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art | Choreographer, performer | [47] |
Theater
[edit]| Year | Title | Venue | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead | Long Wharf Theatre | Alfred | [48] |
| Betty's Summer Vacation | Playwrights Horizons | Voice 1 | [8] | |
| 2000 | Black Milk Quartet | Ohio Theatre | [49] | |
| Dead End | Huntington Theatre Company | [50] | ||
| 2001 | Princess Turandot | Westport Country Playhouse | Truffaldino | [51] |
| The Square Root of Minus One | Market Theater | Wiggins | [52] | |
| 2003 | Camelot | Arena Stage | Mordred | [11] |
| 2004 | Sex*But | Belt Theater | [10] | |
| 2005 | But I'm a Cheerleader | Theatre at Saint Clements | Joel | Part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival[13] |
| 2006 | Christmas on Mars | Old Globe Theatre | Nissim | [12] |
| 2010 | Notes!!! | – | Staged reading, with QWAN Company[17] | |
| 2011 | Swan!!! | Performance Space 122 | Lily | Staged reading, with QWAN Company[17][53] |
| 2018 | Peter Pan | Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts | Tinker Bell; choreographer | [54] |
| 2025 | The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse | Signature Theatre Company | Choreographer | [32] |
Film
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Outside Providence | Irving "Jiz" Waltham | [55] |
| 2001 | Mean People Suck | Jesse Milton | Short film[56] |
| 2001 | Way Off Broadway | Phil | [14] |
| 2007 | Shortcut to Happiness | Jabez's assistant | |
| 2012 | Gayby | Jamie | [29] |
| 2015 | Front Cover | Pascal | |
| 2023 | Nowhere Apparent | Dancer, choreographer | Dance film based on 2020 performance[57] |
| Wüm | Bennett | Short film[58] |
Television
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Strangers with Candy | Jimmy Tickles | [9] |
| 2006 | Law & Order: Criminal Intent | Lenny's assistant | |
| 2010 | The Big C | Receptionist | |
| 2012 | Hunting Season | Nick | [59] |
| 2016 | Deadbeat | Spencer | |
| High Maintenance | Jason | [30] |
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Jack Ferver". Foundation for Contemporary Art.
- ^ a b Portwood, Jerry (May 18, 2012). "Jack Ferver Tells All". Out. Archived from the original on May 28, 2017. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
- ^ a b Millman, Debbie (host) (May 12, 2018). "Jack Ferver". Design Matters (Podcast). Design Matters Media. Archived from the original on July 25, 2020. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Gladstone, Valerie (July 8, 2012). "Choreographer, artist team up for 'Two Alike'". The Boston Globe. pp. N1, N4. Retrieved February 24, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Perel, Marissa (October 6, 2012). "Jack Ferver in conversation with Marissa Perel". Critical Conversations. Movement Research. Archived from the original on July 19, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Kourlas, Gia (May 5, 2020). "Where Dance Fans Can Escape From Our 'Sci-Fi Horror' Moment". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 20, 2020. Retrieved February 20, 2022.
- ^ a b "Off beat". Wisconsin State Journal. September 26, 1999. p. 1C. Retrieved February 24, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Jones, Kenneth (April 16, 1999). "Betty's Summer Vacation Packs Up Its Things April 18 in NYC". Playbill. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- ^ a b Polly, John (May 4, 2007). "Berries & Cream! Little Lads! Remixes!". NewNowNext. Archived from the original on March 12, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- ^ a b Jones, Kenneth (October 7, 2004). "Everything You Wanted to Know About Male Sexuality Answered in New Comedy, Sex*But, Starting Oct. 10 Off-Bway". Playbill. Archived from the original on May 3, 2022. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
- ^ a b Rousuck, J. Wynn (November 22, 2003). "'Camelot' shines in shadows of war, love". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
- ^ a b Hernandez, Ernio (June 3, 2006). "Christmas on Mars Lands at San Diego's Old Globe June 3 as Kondoleon Comedy Starts". Playbill. Archived from the original on April 23, 2021. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
- ^ a b Gans, Andrew (September 13, 2005). "But I'm a Cheerleader Comes of Age in NYMF Run Sept. 13–25". Playbill. Archived from the original on December 1, 2021. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
- ^ a b "Christmas on Mars program" (PDF). Old Globe Theatre. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 12, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- ^ D'Addario, Daniel (March 9, 2011). "Avian Fever: Jack Ferver and Friends Camp Out With Swan!!!". Observer. Archived from the original on March 9, 2015. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
- ^ Burke, Siobhan (March 12, 2011). "Spawn of 'Black Swan': A new parody from Jack Ferver's QWAN Company". Dance Magazine. Archived from the original on July 10, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
- ^ a b c Furlan, Julia (March 8, 2011). "'Black Swan' Becomes 'Swan!!!' at P.S. 122". WNYC. Archived from the original on August 21, 2014. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
- ^ Sierra, Gabrielle (February 10, 2011). "PS122 Presents Jack Ferver's QWAN Company's SWAN!!! 2/10". BroadwayWorld. Archived from the original on July 10, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
- ^ a b c d Sierra, Gabrielle (July 21, 2009). "Jack Ferver Presents I Am Trying to Hear Myself And An Excerpt Of Candam Goodbar At PS122 7/22-26". BroadwayWorld. Archived from the original on May 31, 2022. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
- ^ a b Horowitz, Andy (December 26, 2009). "American Realness Festival". Culturebot. Archived from the original on June 23, 2021. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
- ^ Barker, Jeremy M. (October 4, 2012). "Prelude.12: An Interview with Jack Ferver & Josh Lubin-Levy". Culturebot. Archived from the original on May 8, 2021. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
- ^ Gaertner Gerbracht, Kerry (September 24, 2015). "A Dance Pairs Jean Genet and Lady Gaga". Hyperallergic. Archived from the original on January 13, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
- ^ Franko, Mark (2013). "Ferver Between Fear and Hope". PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. 35 (1): 58–63. doi:10.1162/PAJJ_a_00125. JSTOR 26376117. S2CID 57566380.
- ^ Shaw, Helen (July 15, 2016). "Dance, Dance, Revolution: Bessie Awards name the 2016 nominees". Time Out New York. Archived from the original on May 3, 2021. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
- ^ a b Nudd, Tim (October 24, 2008). "Brief interviews with commercial actors: Jack Ferver on being Starburst's Little Lad". Adweek. Archived from the original on June 18, 2017. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
- ^ a b Fuhrer, Margaret (November 19, 2021). "The Little Lad? Berries and Cream? Call It Performance Art". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 11, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
- ^ Fowler, Kate (September 2, 2021). "How this 'cursed' 2007 Starburst commercial became TikTok's latest trend". Newsweek. Archived from the original on October 8, 2021. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
- ^ a b Marius, Marley (July 9, 2020). "Anatomy of a Play Put on Hold: Jeremy O. Harris's A Boy's Company Presents: 'Tell Me If I'm Hurting You'". Vogue. Archived from the original on August 12, 2021. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
- ^ a b Walsh, Katie (October 10, 2012). "Review: 'Gayby' Is A Slightly Amusing Little Comedy About…You Guessed It, Babymaking With Your Best Gay". IndieWire. Archived from the original on March 3, 2021. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- ^ a b Russell, John (September 18, 2016). "Exclusive: Colby Keller On Stripping Down On The Set Of HBO's 'High Maintenance'". Queerty. Archived from the original on October 6, 2020. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
- ^ Edgecomb, Sean F. (2021). "Queer Rurality and the Closet Door Ajar on the Contemporary American Stage". Theatre Journal. 73 (1): 37–59. doi:10.1353/tj.2021.0004. S2CID 234168653.
- ^ a b Tran, Diep (May 14, 2025). "Read the Reviews for The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse". Playbill. Archived from the original on May 22, 2025. Retrieved June 16, 2025.
- ^ a b Shadle, Caroline (August 17, 2019). "What to Listen to: Our Top 3 Dance Podcast Picks". Dance Magazine. Archived from the original on January 28, 2022. Retrieved February 20, 2022.
- ^ Barone, Joshua (December 19, 2017). "Gibney Dance Expands Its Residency Program". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 31, 2018. Retrieved July 22, 2020.
- ^ a b Talijancic, Ivan (May 2018). "Jack Ferver with Ivan Talijancic". The Brooklyn Rail. Archived from the original on September 17, 2021. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
- ^ Shadle, Caroline (July 7, 2021). "Jeremy Jacob Explores the Choreography of Filmmaking". Dance Magazine. Archived from the original on December 28, 2021. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
- ^ a b Ferver, Jack. "Bio". Jack Ferver. Archived from the original on March 31, 2022. Retrieved May 31, 2022.
- ^ Kourlas, Gia (December 10, 2010). "Laughing and Crying at Ghosts, Fictive and Real". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 17, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
- ^ Flores Alvarez, Olivia (September 15, 2011). "Jack Ferver & Marc Swanson: Two Alike". Houston Press. Archived from the original on July 3, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
- ^ La Rocco, Claudia (November 16, 2011). "Two Performa 11 Duets, Distinct Yet Conversant in Their Shared Themes". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 17, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
- ^ La Rocco, Claudia (October 10, 2012). "Telling Almost All, and With a Wink". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 17, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
- ^ Seibert, Brian (May 3, 2013). "A Meeting of Two Elizabeths, Not at All Related". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 17, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
- ^ Burke, Siobhan (November 23, 2014). "Visual Arts Come to the Theater as Genres Blend and Bend". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 16, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
- ^ Seibert, Brian (January 15, 2015). "Anguish, Wackily Recalled". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 16, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
- ^ Seibert, Brian (July 1, 2016). "Review: An Innocent Abroad (Beware the Boss's Bite)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 16, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
- ^ Murray, Linda (2021). Jerome Robbins Dance Division Annual Report FY20 (PDF) (Report). Jerome Robbins Dance Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 3, 2022. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
- ^ "Mass MoCA's fall season includes a massive roller coaster-inspired exhibit, concerts, a world-premiere dance and performance art". The Berkshire Eagle. September 2, 2022. Archived from the original on January 28, 2023. Retrieved May 4, 2023.
- ^ Borak, Jeffrey (July 3, 1999). "Minor players in Shakespeare tragedy are swept up by life's uncertainties". The Berkshire Eagle. p. C4. Retrieved May 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Ehren, Christine; McGrath, Sean (January 20, 2000). "NYC's Talking Band Sings Black Milk Quartet Jan. 20-Feb. 6". Playbill. Archived from the original on March 2, 2021. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
- ^ Hartigan, Patti (September 15, 2000). "Brave beginning with 'Dead End'". The Boston Globe. pp. D1, D12. Retrieved May 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Johnson, Malcolm (June 11, 2001). "'Princess Turandot' Opens a New Era at Playhouse". Hartford Courant. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ Stark, Larry (2001). "'What Happened in Boston, Willie'". The Theater Mirror. Archived from the original on November 20, 2006. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
- ^ Healy, Patrick (February 14, 2011). "Those Crazy Swans". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 17, 2022. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
- ^ Hetrick, Adam (May 23, 2018). "Leonard Bernstein's Peter Pan Will Be Reinvented at Bard". Playbill. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved May 3, 2022.
- ^ Carroll, Matt (March 3, 2000). "Farrelly brothers succeed with Outside Providence". Daily Collegian. Archived from the original on March 12, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- ^ Bale, Theodore (August 21, 2011). "Fall arts faves include collaborative ventures, distinctive operas & a touch of scandal". CultureMap Houston. Archived from the original on March 12, 2022. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
- ^ Moen, Matt (March 6, 2023). "Jack Ferver Mourns a Lost Generation in 'Nowhere Apparent'". Paper. Archived from the original on February 3, 2024. Retrieved February 3, 2024.
- ^ Souter, Collin (May 2, 2023). "Short Films in Focus: The Shorts Programs of the 2023 Chicago Critics Film Festival". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. Retrieved June 25, 2024.
- ^ Kramer, Gary M. (June 2, 2015). "Why You Should Be Watching 'Hunting Season' (Plus An Exclusive Clip)". IndieWire. Archived from the original on May 9, 2021. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
External links
[edit]- Official website
- Jack Ferver at IMDb
- The Dance and Stuff Show's channel on YouTube
- Jack Ferver's channel on Vimeo
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