Credit: Abby Koskinas

Credit: Abby Koskinas

Jacqueleen Bordjadze

Contributor 2019-2020

Dance and English Student at the Ohio State University


Biography

Jacqueleen Bordjadze is a fourth year undergraduate at the Ohio State University, majoring in Dance and English. As a dancer, she has performed works by Ann Sofie Clemmensen, Susan Van Pelt Petry, Gina Hoch-Stall, Lexi Stilianos, and Calder White, among others. Her choreography has been produced by the Department of Dance’s 2018 and 2019 Winter Concerts, as well as in the Dance Denmark Study Abroad performances in Odense and Aalborg, Denmark. She works as a writing tutor and writes with the Wexner-Ratner Writing About the Performing Arts cohort. She is from Columbus, Ohio, and her BFA thesis research focuses on the human relation to nature, climate change, and natural disasters.


Q & A

What makes more livable futures for you?

  • Grace as opposed to guilt/shame. 

  • Reasonability (personally, for people, relationships, the place I’m in, the earth). 

  • Presence (with people and in daily things). 

There’s a quote (seemingly from the Talmud but probably a mash up of several quotes) that I return to often: “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” 

What are you reading, viewing, listening to right now?

  • Reading: A Fortune for Your Disaster by Hanif Abdurraquib. Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong. 

  • Viewing: Pose and Anne with an E on Netflix. Pride and Prejudice (2005). 

  • Listening: NPR’s Up First Podcast. Hozier. Tyler the Creator. Maggie Rogers. BROCKHAMPTON (but only their newest album). 

What practices are sustaining you?

  • Rest. And with that, setting boundaries, so that I can rest. 

  • Asking for help. Asking how people are doing. Asking to meet up for coffee. 

  • Reading, a lot. Educating myself first, and with that, assuming that there are things I need to learn from others. 

  • Showing up for things, whenever I can, so that my financial support and physical presence allow others’ work to continue.