Jason Akira Somma is a practicing choreographer, director, and photographer experimenting on ways of transcending dance from the ephemeral state on stage to the walls of galleries. He is the first American to receive the Rolex Mentor Protégé Award for dance and will be collaborating with the Legendary Jiri Kylian for the Nederlands Danse Theatre’s 50th anniversary show. Jason has danced for Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Co. and the Sara Pearson/Patrik Widrig Dance Theatre Co. among others. His dance film work has been featured on the Sundance Channel, Independent Film Channel, PBS, NY Dance Film Festival, MTV Europe, American Dance Festival, Dance Theatre Workshop (NYC), Seoul (Korea) Film Festival, SPEX Magazine (Germany), and Impulz Tanz Festival in Vienna. His photography and film work have also been featured at Deitch Projects, P.S.1 (MoMA), Robert Altman Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art (Norfolk, Va.), and the Anderson Gallery (Richmond, Va.). His photography work has also been featured in numerous periodicals and magazines in the US and Europe, including the New York Times, Dance Magazine, Dance Europe Magazine, Village Voice, Time Out New York, and the Los Angeles Times, to name a few. Somma has recently been commissioned by the Lyon Opera Ballet to create a new work for June of 2010, as well as the “moves” festival in London to create a new dance film to be aired on the BBC Big Screens.