Jennifer
Photo by Isabelle Marchand
Creative movement has always been an integral part of Jennifer's personal and professional life. As a physical therapist, yoga teacher, Ayurvedic counselor, Pilates instructor, and dance teacher in the New River Valley, she enjoys integrating movement arts and healing arts into her work and play for overall health, well being, and enjoyment. She loves that this dance form can encourage people of all ages and ability levels to become more aware of their bodies and themselves, and she loves to help individuals enjoy the beauty of movement regardless of physical limitations.
Jennifer is a licensed physical therapist graduating in 1998 with a Master of Science in Physical Therapy. Her yoga training is as a Certified Integrative Yoga Therapy Teacher, and she has completed a Hatha Yoga teacher training with Anna Pittman. She is also a Certified YogaKids Facilitator and has completed the Yoga for the Special Child training program. She has studied restorative yoga with Judith Lasater and is a Relax and Renew® Trainer. She is a Registered Yoga Teacher with the Yoga Alliance and is a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. She is also both a certified Ayurvedic Lifestyle Counselor and Yoga & Ayurveda Health Educator through American Institute of Vedic Studies.
Jennifer is a Polestar® Certified
Pilates Instructor with specialization in using Pilates techniques for
rehabilitation as well as for wellness. She has also completed
PhysicalMind Institute's Pilates Mat Program training.
Jennifer is a founding member of Mandara.
She has been a contributing writer for Zaghareet!
magazine since 2003 sharing articles about stretching and conditioning
for belly dancers so that they may continue to safely, pain-free and
joyously dance for many years to come. She was a
Jefferson Center INSPIRE
artist
who shared dances from North Africa and the Middle East in
the school systems throughout southwest Virginia. Jennifer is a
Certified JourneyDance™
Teacher encouraging everyone to find the dancer within. She has
also attended the Dance for PD®
training through the Mark Morris Dance Group, and is currently
facilitating Dance for Parkinson's classes in her New River Valley
community.
She has taken workshops with several nationally known transnational dance instructors. At this time her greatest dance performance and teaching inspirations include Aziza of Montreal, Mira Betz, Rachel Brice, Colleena Shakti, Donna Mejia, Jill Parker and Zafira Dance Company. She has completed weeklong intensives with Aziza and Mira Betz.
In addition to belly dance, she enjoys and explores other ethnic dances such as West African and folkloric Indian. When she is not being an overachieving geek, Jennifer enjoys hiking, reading, swing dancing, contra-dancing and drumming with her complementary half, her husband Rob. For more information about her work, you can visit www.innerawareness.net.