Biography
Jonathan Ward Edmondson was born in Eastern North Carolina and started taking tap, jazz, and ballet at age 9. Ward was into everything possible, including scouts, swim team, little league baseball, and choir, which eventually led to voice coaching and musicals in and after high-school. With seemingly boundless energy, Ward was a medaled swimmer and excelled in dance. He went on to teach ballroom and country western dance to middle grade students and adults. Performing for many various venues including local TV station appearances, Ward also went on the road with his dance troupe to win numerous awards and competitions up and down the East Coast.
Ward was a dance major at Virginia Intermont College in Bristol, Virginia. There, he choreographed and danced feature and lead roles with the Bristol Ballet Company under the direction of Constance Harding, while studying acting, voice and other aspects of theater like historical costuming, set design and construction, and sound and lighting for theater.
After moving back to North Carolina, Ward received a Bachelor of Science degree from East Carolina University in 1994 and embarked on a laboratory science career. With an undying passion for the arts, Ward continued to teach dance for Bobbi Collins Dance/Arts Studio. He choreographed and performed in numerous events. He was a charter member of the Bobbi Collins Dance Company and traveled to teach aerobics, ballroom, and country/western dance at Dance Conventions such as Danny Hoctor's Dance Caravan and he sports many trophies from Dance Competitions in New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia.
In 2000, Ward spent the summer in Charlotte, North Carolina studying massage therapy at Southeastern School of Massage and Neuromuscular Therapy. In the fall, he moved to Philadelphia and began working at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, practicing massage therapy at night. Ward continued to take acting classes, attend workshops for film, and danced and performed supernumerary/light walker work for the Opera Company of Philadelphia until he moved to Hollywood in 2007 in further pursuit of his dream.
