Jeannie spent 16 years working with Merce Cunningham as an apprentice, company dancer and rehearsal assistant. She is a senior stager of Cunningham’s work and has mounted his choreography since 1998 on a number of companies including Pacific Northwest Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, New York City Ballet and Rambert. Jeannie has been on the faculty at LCDS since 2007 and held the position of Head of Technique & Performance from 2018-2020. She also served as Rehearsal Director of EDGE, LCDS’s postgraduate dance company in 2020/21.
Throughout her time at LCDS, Steele has continued to stage Cunningham’s work. In 2013, she was curator of the dance component of The Bride and the Bachelors. Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg, Johns at the Barbican. In 2014, she created a Cunningham Event for Rambert Dance Company to celebrate the opening of their new building on the South bank. The Rambert Event, with decor by Gerhard Richter and music by Radiohead drummer, Philip Selway, was nominated for a UK theatre award. Another incarnation of this Event was performed in Rome, Paris and at London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre as part of the Cunningham Centennial celebrations in 2019.
These performances earned Steele and Selway a nomination for a 2021 National Dance Award for Outstanding Creative Contribution by the UK Critic’s Circle.
In addition to her work with Cunningham, she has also served as a rehearsal assistant to Michael Clark and Holly Blakey. Most recently, Jeannie has been invited by Wayne McGregor, to stage a Cunningham Event which will be performed as part of the Biennale Danza in Venice, July 2022. Jeannie holds an MA in Contemporary Dance from LCDS and she is currently completing a PGDipALTHE though Northern School of Contemporary Dance, validated by University of Kent.