TDWÂ MAVENS
Meet JenÂ
My Story
I’ve been dancing since the age of 9. I know that seems late to start, but that’s when I convinced my mom to let me take classes! I started out in a ballet class with girls several years younger, but quickly moved into modern dance and fell in love. In high school I danced at school and with a modern dance company. I went to college as a dance major, but couldn’t find a clear direction and left dance because I thought I couldn’t dance AND have a career. What I didn’t realize was the huge hole it would leave in my life. I not only missed dance, but I needed to dance! I flirted with ballroom dance (I like the Latin dances!) and eventually started classes at a pole dance studio!Â
I taught pole dance, lap dance and chair dance for many years - which is how I met Jules. We met when she took one of my classes, and years later when a colleague recommended this workout she’d found for adult dancers, I realized it was fate. Dance is such a small world, maybe it’s not surprising that Jules and I would keep running into each other as we navigated careers keeping dance in our lives.Â
What TDW Means to Me
For me, TDW is a place where I can get away from the pressures of working and family! Dancing at TDW allows my body and brain the chance to exist in a space where there are no expectations for perfection, only the expectation to have fun! I have the added benefit of seeing some of my choreography in two of the TDW masterclasses. Based on our previous dance connection, Jules reached out to me about coming up with some original choreography for two TDW masterclasses. Jules sent me the music and some ideas, and I sent her back strings of choreography. She took that choreography, worked her magic, and used it in Velvet Heartstrings and Resilience. What an honor to have some of my work make it into the TDW canon! I am thrilled to be a part of the inaugural MAVENS, and so thankful that Jules created this program for adult dancers. I’m not 27 or even 37. I’m a 47-year-old mom and wife with a full-time job in a career that I love. But part of me will always be a dancer and choreographer, and TDW allows me to keep doing what I need to do to feel like my whole self. I’m so glad that I found TDW!!
TDWÂ MAVENS
Meet Jen
My Story
I’ve been dancing since the age of 9. I know that seems late to start, but that’s when I convinced my mom to let me take classes! I started out in a ballet class with girls several years younger, but quickly moved into modern dance and fell in love. In high school I danced at school and with a modern dance company. I went to college as a dance major, but couldn’t find a clear direction and left dance because I thought I couldn’t dance AND have a career. What I didn’t realize was the huge hole it would leave in my life. I not only missed dance, but I needed to dance! I flirted with ballroom dance (I like the Latin dances!) and eventually started classes at a pole dance studio!Â
I taught pole dance, lap dance and chair dance for many years - which is how I met Jules. We met when she took one of my classes, and years later when a colleague recommended this workout she’d found for adult dancers, I realized it was fate. Dance is such a small world, maybe it’s not surprising that Jules and I would keep running into each other as we navigated careers keeping dance in our lives.Â
What TDW Means to Me
For me, TDW is a place where I can get away from the pressures of working and family! Dancing at TDW allows my body and brain the chance to exist in a space where there are no expectations for perfection, only the expectation to have fun! I have the added benefit of seeing some of my choreography in two of the TDW masterclasses. Based on our previous dance connection, Jules reached out to me about coming up with some original choreography for two TDW masterclasses. Jules sent me the music and some ideas, and I sent her back strings of choreography. She took that choreography, worked her magic, and used it in Velvet Heartstrings and Resilience. What an honor to have some of my work make it into the TDW canon! I am thrilled to be a part of the inaugural MAVENS, and so thankful that Jules created this program for adult dancers. I’m not 27 or even 37. I’m a 47-year-old mom and wife with a full-time job in a career that I love. But part of me will always be a dancer and choreographer, and TDW allows me to keep doing what I need to do to feel like my whole self. I’m so glad that I found TDW!!
