Jennie’s work is about making situations for people to dance – in every sense of the word, actual and symbolic. Dance is not only a second-hand visual experience for an audience, it is also a first-hand sensory experience for people of all body types, ages, and abilities. Dance is a metaphor for a life well lived and shared with others and for the underlying unity of things. 

Jennie has been a teaching artist (dance and folk arts) in primary and secondary schools for the Metropolitan Arts Council in Greenville, SC and the South Carolina Arts Commission, and a caller of contra dances for public community dances and private events like weddings. She is an associate of the Tamalpa Institute Life/Art Process and a registered somatic movement educator (RSME of the International Somatic Movement Educator and Therapy Association or ISMETA), and a movement-based expressive arts facilitator in private practice. 

She is retired (emerita) from the English department of Clemson University, Clemson, SC, where she taught composition, humanities, and literature courses and used the Tamalpa Life/Art Process (TLAP) to help students in all majors tap their own creative process. She developed these courses at Clemson: “Writing, Body, and Earth,” “The Role of Dance in Culture,” “Writing Architecture,” and “Writing the Occupational Narrative.” She leads dance and embodiment events at Haden Institute in Hendersonville, North Carolina, where she received a certification in Jungian dreamwork. Her MA in English is from Clemson University. Her BFA in dance is from Boston Conservatory.