Jennifer Polins

ENNIFER POLINS
     FOUNDING DIRECTOR, DIRECTOR OF HATCHERY

Jennifer Polins is a curator, mobilizer, movement practitioner and performance maker, bridging somatics -performance practices- and contemporary dance techniques for over 25 years. Jen is the founding director of The School for Contemporary Dance and Thought, holds an MFA in dance from Hollins University/The American Dance Festival and is a 2014 MCC choreographic fellow. Jen is also the assistant programmer for A.P.E.@Hawley. She has danced professionally in America and Europe, starting with the Joffrey Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet and then the Zurich Operahouse Ballet companies before migrating to a professional career in contemporary performance art. Jen is specialized in rigorous improvisational practices and worked closely with many mentors most notably- Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Nancy Stark Smith, Steve Paxton, and Lisa Nelson. Jen is certified in Pilates, Gyrotonic, Gyrokinesis, Yoga, and Massage. She studied Body Mind Centering for over 10 years and all of these somatic practices deeply affect her curation, teaching and making. Jen is guest lecturer in the Five College Dance department. She is the co-founder of Wire Monkey Dance where produced over 20 productions throughout America, Europe and Asia.  Jen lives between Berlin and Northampton where she creates work, curates artists, connects communities and teaches. With SCDT, Jen is in close collaborative relationships with A.P.E.@ Hawley, San Francisco’s La Alternativa,  Boston’s New Movement Collaborative, and Northampton’s Community Arts Trust. Jen is working on the creative team of the Ponderosa TanzLand Festival beside Stephanie Maher. She has collaborated most recently with Maurice Fraga, Joy Davis, Jen Nugent, Stephanie Maher, Peter Schmitz, Sarah Shelton Mann, Paul Matteson and James Morrow. 
​See her work HERE.