Jo Wise is a writer, songwriter, singer, choreographer, dancer and teacher. Her memoir, Dancing for the Mafia, gives a fine flavour of her eclectic life, background and career, and will be out in 2022.

An early career in contemporary dance was eclipsed by her outstanding contribution to the world of Middle Eastern and belly dance, and has included shows worldwide and popular events including London’s Fantasia Festival, the International Bellydance Congress and the JWAAD Summer School. Her east/west fusion choreography has been commissioned by theatre and opera companies, and can best be seen in theatre shows by her dance company, Johara Dance. A new revival of her full-length show The Mirror is due in 2022. She created her dance academy JWAAD in 1990, and since then it has raised the standard and the standing of oriental dance in the UK and abroad.

As a jazz singer, Jo has written songs with a humorous look at the human condition, and has sung them in her inimitable warm and mellow voice. Her CD, Be My Devotee is a frank look at the human condition, with a style inspired by her European roots. It includes some autobiographical songs, and some that simply observe the frailties and frustrations of people trying to live and survive in the modern world.

As a teacher, mentor and Principle of JWAAD, Jo has worked with people all her life, bringing joy and hope to those receiving help in psychiatric wards, a means of expression to students of dance and music, and a sense of community to women of all ages and backgrounds.

Jo has an ongoing interest in the human experience, of how to make sense of the world and function within it. Her long-term knowledge of the expressions of the mind and body, helped also by her training as an Alexander Teacher, informs all her work. She believes strongly in the power of laughter, and she refuses to take herself, or the world, too seriously.

Onstage, Jo is a joy to watch, hear and encounter. She no longer dances, due to the development of a disability, hEDS, but she is supremely at home with an audience, will entertain you with tall tales, sing some of them to you if you’re lucky, and hopefully make you smile.

For further details about Jo’s dance and music careers please refer to the ‘about’ pages in the separate sections of this website.