I’ve worked with words throughout my professional life in publishing. You can see my experience in my LinkedIn profile

Words and movement

My love for words is matched by my love for movement. I trained as a classical dancer and tried very hard to make dance my career. Eventually I accepted my limitations and went to university — where I could exhale at last — and from there into my career in publishing and management. But I never abandoned my fascination with movement, dance and the body

I brought my lifelong interests together in my thesis for my Master of Philosophy in Creative Writing entitled White Swan Black: Fonteyn, Guillem and Copeland. I wrote a biography of the ballerinas Margot Fonteyn, Sylvie Guillem and Misty Copeland who are separated by distance, generation and temperament, but drawn together relationally by their singular contributions to ballet. Fonteyn embodies the white swan, idealised and ethereal; Guillem and Copeland embody the black swans, self-aware and physically powerful. My thesis traces this cultural transition in the lives of women

I also wrote an accompanying exegesis that explores the mechanics of relational biography in two contrasting works, Stravinsky’s Lunch (Drusilla Modjeska, 2002) and The Lamberts (Andrew Motion, 1986). I apprenticed myself to these mighty biographers by analysing their opposing narrative approaches through the lens of the engaged mother and the absent father

So — I’m an intellectual who loves to move. I’m a creative who is practical and systematic. I’m an executive who writes business cases and literary essays

About Words by Jill Brown
This website is a home for my writing where I can test thoughts and ideas and showcase any work that is published. It’s both a portfolio and a notebook

My writing interests are —

• Dance, dancers, dance-making

• Criticism and close reading

• Words in all their guises