As a Gainesville, Florida native, Jennifer has dedicated her life to the performing arts. She earned her BFA in Dance Performance from Dominican University of California through the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA Program in San Francisco, where she trained with world-renowned coaches and choreographers, including Alonzo King, Sidra Bell, and Amy Seiwert. Jennifer performed professionally with Dance Alive National Ballet and Oakland Ballet before retiring from her performing career in late 2015. She then joined the administrative staff at the Glorya Kaufman School of Dance at the University of Southern California, later relocating to Houston to work with the artistic staff at Houston Ballet under Stanton Welch. While at Houston Ballet, she led and organized the company’s first women’s choreographic workshop, elle émerge, which served as a launchpad for emerging female choreographers. Shifting her focus to arts leadership and development, Jennifer became Special Events Manager at the Houston Symphony while simultaneously earning her Master of Arts in Arts Leadership at the University of Houston, where she researched crisis leadership in the arts. Upon returning to Gainesville, she served as lead fundraiser and marketer at Aces in Motion, a youth development afterschool program supporting under-resourced students. Building on her experience in performance, administration, and community engagement, Jennifer founded Gainesville Movement Studio, a space where adults can explore dance styles ranging from ballet to K-Pop. Throughout her career, she has remained committed to strengthening and sustaining the performing arts sector, guided by her values of authenticity, equity, humility, and transparency.
