This new pilot explores how a diversity of voices can inform OtB’s curatorial leadership. The initiative kicks off with inaugural Curatorial Advisors Jody Kuehner, local artist and curator and Janet Wong, visiting curator. This initiative brings a plurality of voices to the OtB table and will work together to curate the 27/28 season and beyond.
Meet Our Curatorial Council
Jody Kuehner aka Cherdonna Shinatra uses absurdity and subversive commentary to make art. Twenty years ago, she landed in Seattle and fell in love with its rowdy, postmodern dance culture. She fell in love with her own queerness. In doing so, Jody created Cherdonna Shinatra as a persona and character to question herself and explore existence. Over the last 20 years Jody has created and performed a wide array of evening-length works described as “uncategorizable spectacles” (The Stranger) for theaters, museums, clubs, and abandoned buildings.
She is a 2020 and 2023 NEFA’s National Dance Project finalist and 2016 NDP awardee, 2017 Artist Trust Fellowship recipient, and 2015 Stranger Genius Award winner. Her exhibition DITCH was presented at the Frye Art Museum, WA; The Momentary, AK; Sarasota Art Museum, FL; and Akron Art Museum, OH. DITCH was featured in ARTnews, i-D Magazine and NBC's 12 must-see LGBTQ art shows around the world.
Janet Wong is an independent performing arts professional with expertise in contemporary dance and performance in the U.S. and internationally. She began her career as a professional dancer in Berlin and from 1995-2025 was the Associate Artistic Director of New York Live Arts and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. Her interests include, in no particular order, choreography, curation, directing, technology, dramaturgy, producing, video work, projection design, education, mentorship, systems thinking, embodied values, international exchange, and environmental justice.
She currently serves on the boards of the Jerome Foundation and Big Dance Theater.