Jack Ferver
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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 Interlochen Center for the Arts ( '; also known as I.C.A. or Inty) is a Nonprofit organization, non-profit corporation which operates Visual arts education, arts education institutions and Music venue, performance venues. Established in 1928 b ...
, 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 The New York Dance and Performance Awards, also known as the Bessie Awards, are awarded annually for exceptional achievement by independent dance artists presenting their work in New York City. The broad categories of the awards are: choreography, ...
. Ferver teaches at
Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...
and cohosts a podcast about the dance world.


Early life

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". Ferver began working with a teacher who was influenced by
Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer, whose style, the Graham technique, reshaped the dance world and is still taught in academies worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over s ...
when they were 13. They received a scholarship to
Interlochen Arts Academy Interlochen Center for the Arts ( '; also known as I.C.A. or Inty) is a Nonprofit organization, non-profit corporation which operates Visual arts education, arts education institutions and Music venue, performance venues. Established in 1928 b ...
for their senior year of high school, where they trained and met future collaborator Reid Bartelme.


Career

After attending Interlochen, Ferver moved to New York City. 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). Ferver hoped to land more film roles but had trouble finding a
talent agent A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds work for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, dancers, and other professionals in various entertainm ...
and recalled rejection from
casting director In the performing arts industry such as theatre, film, or television, casting, or a casting call, is a pre-production process for selecting a certain type of actor, dancer, singer, or extra to land the role of a character in a script, screenp ...
s who had trouble viewing them as a young person, despite being eighteen years old when ''Outside Providence'' was filmed. Around this time, they began to take classes at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. 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 Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit American Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. ...
. In 2000, they appeared on several episodes of the
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...
TV series ''
Strangers with Candy ''Strangers with Candy'' is an American television sitcom created by Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Amy Sedaris, and Mitch Rouse that originally aired on Comedy Central from April 7, 1999, to October 2, 2000. Its timeslot was Sundays at 10:00 ...
''. 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. In 2001, they appeared in the film ''Way Off Broadway'' and in 2005 they performed in the
New York Musical Theatre Festival The New York Musical Festival (NYMF) was an annual event held each summer from 2004 to 2019 in New York City's midtown theater district. It mounted more than 30 new musicals each year, more than half selected through an open-submission, double- ...
adaptation of the film ''
But I'm a Cheerleader ''But I'm a Cheerleader'' is a 1999 American Satire (film and television), satirical Teen film, teen romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit in her feature directorial debut and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Mega ...
''. With the QWAN Company, which Ferver founded, they created and performed in satirical live readings of the films ''
Notes on a Scandal ''Notes on a Scandal'' (''What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal'' in the U.S.) is a 2003 novel by Zoë Heller. It is about a female teacher at a London comprehensive school who begins an affair with an underage pupil. Heller said to ''The O ...
'' and ''
Black Swan The black swan (''Cygnus atratus'') is a large Anatidae, waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia, the black swan is nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent ...
'' titled ''Notes!!!'' (2010) and ''Swan!!!'' (2011), respectively. In 2007, Ferver began performing full-length dance pieces with their work ''When We Were Young and Filled with Fear''. In the late 2000s, they presented their work at
Dixon Place Dixon Place is a theater organization in New York City dedicated to the development of works-in-progress from a broad range of performers and artists. It exists to serve the creative needs of artists—emerging, mid-career and established—who ...
(''When We Were Young'' and ''Meat''),
Danspace Project Danspace Project is a performance venue for contemporary dance. Its performances are held in St. Mark's Church in the East Village area of the Manhattan borough of New York City. History Founded in 1974 by Barbara Dilley, Mary Overlie, and Larr ...
(''Death Is Certain''), and
Abrons Arts Center The Henry Street Settlement is a not-for-profit social service agency on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City that provides social services, arts programs and health care services to New Yorkers of all ages. It was founded under the ...
(''A Movie Star Needs a Movie''), the latter as part of the American Realness Festival. As a dancer and choreographer, Ferver has collaborated with Interlochen classmate Bartelme, dramaturg Joshua Lubin-Levy, and artist Marc Swanson. ''Chambre'', one of Ferver's pieces with Swanson, was nominated in 2016 for a
Bessie Award The New York Dance and Performance Awards, also known as the Bessie Awards, are awarded annually for exceptional achievement by independent dance artists presenting their work in New York City. The broad categories of the awards are: choreography, ...
. Ferver appeared as a character known as the Little Lad in a 2007 commercial for Berries and Cream
Starburst MicroPro International Corporation was an American software company founded in 1978 in San Rafael, California. They are best known as the publisher of WordStar, a popular early word processor for personal computers. History Founding and early su ...
candies. The advertisement, which features Ferver performing a simple dance while singing "Berries and cream!", spread widely and generated parodies and mashups on
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
that year, as did a second video in which Ferver as the Lad led a tutorial for the dance. Ferver briefly revived the character in late 2021 when the tutorial video was reposted to
TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...
by podcast host
Justin McElroy Justin Tyler McElroy ( , born November 8, 1980) is an American podcaster, comedian, and former video game journalist. He is known for his work on podcasts (such as ''My Brother, My Brother and Me'', ''The Adventure Zone'', and '' Sawbones'') and ...
and the Little Lad's dance became a popular TikTok trend. As of 2020, Ferver taught at
Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...
and was also a visiting professor at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
. In addition to their dance work, Ferver has appeared in other movies and TV shows, including ''
Gayby ''Gayby'' is a 2012 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Jonathan Lisecki and starring Jenn Harris, Matthew Wilkas, Mike Doyle, Anna Margaret Hollyman, Jack Ferver and Jonathan Lisecki. It is based on the 2010 short film of the same ...
'' (2012) and ''
High Maintenance ''High Maintenance'' is an American anthology comedy-drama television and web series created by ex-husband and wife team Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld. The show follows The Guy, a cannabis courier (played by Sinclair), as he delivers his p ...
'' (2016). Ferver choreographed and appeared as
Tinker Bell Tinker Bell is a fictional character from J. M. Barrie's 1904 play '' Peter Pan'' and its 1911 novelisation '' Peter and Wendy''. She has appeared in a variety of film and television adaptations of the Peter Pan stories, in particular the 1953 ...
in Bard College's 2018 production of
Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was th ...
's musical ''
Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical ...
''. They also signed on in 2019 to choreograph
Jeremy O. Harris Jeremy O. Harris (born June 2, 1989) is an American playwright, actor and screenwriter. Harris gained prominence for his 2018 ''Slave Play'', which received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Play. Harris is also known for his work in film ...
'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 The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
. Ferver choreographed the off-Broadway musical ''The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse'' at
Signature Theatre Company Signature Theatre Company is a nonprofit Off Broadway theatre company located on West 42nd Street in New York City. It was founded in 1991 by James Houghton and is now led by Artistic Director Emily Shooltz. Signature is known for their season-l ...
in 2025. Ferver and Bartelme, who had both been fellows at the
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, in the Lincoln Center complex on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, New York City. Situated between the Metropolitan O ...
, began hosting the podcast ''What's Going On with Dance and Stuff'' in 2017, with a consistent rule of releasing an episode every Friday. Topics discussed, which often tend to be "more about the 'stuff' than the 'dance,'" according to ''
Dance Magazine ''Dance Magazine'' is an American trade publication for dance. It was first published in June 1927 as ''The American Dancer''. ''Dance Magazine'' is currently part of Dance Media, led by longtime arts publisher Joanna Harp as president, and has mu ...
'', include contemporary dance performances, books,
Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer, whose style, the Graham technique, reshaped the dance world and is still taught in academies worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over s ...
, astrology, and Ferver and Bartelme's own work.


Style

Ferver is most known for their dance-theatre shows that examine trauma, otherness, and queerness. In interviews, Ferver has cited
Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer, whose style, the Graham technique, reshaped the dance world and is still taught in academies worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over s ...
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. 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. In ''Everything Is Imaginable'', Ferver choreographed four soloists to "collectively exhume their personal queer histories and celebrate their childhood icons."


Personal life

In 2008, Ferver lived in
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
, New York. Their partner is filmmaker and artist Jeremy Jacob.


Performances


Dance


Theater


Film


Television


Notes


References


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ferver, Jack LGBTQ choreographers LGBTQ theatre directors American contemporary dancers American choreographers American performance artists Living people 21st-century American dancers American queer artists American queer actors American film actors American stage actors American television actors 21st-century American academics Bard College faculty People from Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin People from Sauk City, Wisconsin Artists from Brooklyn Artists from Wisconsin Actors from New York City Actors from Wisconsin Interlochen Center for the Arts alumni 1979 births Queer dancers