jesse ocampo

(she/they)

Embodied Organizer & movement archivist

Jesse is a Bay Area-raised, Los Angeles-based dance educator, choreographer, and creative activist grounded in the values of accessibility, compassion, and resiliency. Growing up in a creative household - with a father who worked as a DJ and tattoo artist - Jesse found an early love for music, dance, and Bay Area Hip Hop culture that continues to root their movement practice today.

Jesse began teaching in the arts at age 12 as a competition dance choreographer and recreational dance instructor, and has spent 15+ years since as a dance educator specializing in non-profit arts education, early childhood development, and radical pedagogy. Jesse currently serves as the Recreational Dance Specialist with the City of Carson and teaches social justice and personal development classes to BIPOC youth and women throughout Los Angeles with the non-profit EmpowHer. Jesse is also the Creative Director and Founder of PaperCrane Project, an ethnographic, choreography-based creative collective bringing accessible arts wellness programming to Long Beach, and previously performed professionally with the Walt Disney Company's Live Entertainment.

Jesse holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with a minor in Dance, and a Master's degree in Medical Anthropology, from CSULB. Their training spans ballet, contemporary, jazz funk, and hip hop foundations, with a more recent practice of connecting to ancestry through Filipino dance.

Jesse first found their way to CONTRA-TIEMPO as a community member during the “Roots of Loving Us” workshops in March 2025, and knew immediately they had found their movement home. After performing in “Direct Address” choreographed by Ana María Alvarez and premiering at the Ford in Fall 2025, Jesse joined the company as an Embodied Organizer and Movement Archivist at the beginning of 2026.

IG: @hess_da_mess