Jennifer Clarke is a dance artist, choreographer, and movement educator whose practice spans Contact Improvisation, somatic education, yoga, qigong, and improvisation. She has been working professionally in dance and movement for more than 28 years.
Her Contact Improvisation practice is rooted in the Vancouver lineage of Peter Bingham, who studied with CI founder Steve Paxton. Her somatic studies have included work with Martha Eddy in New York and Donna Redlick in Vancouver.
Jennifer's teaching is grounded in close attention to the body's organization in relation to gravity, weight, momentum, sensation, and space. She is interested in the intelligence of the moving body: how perception, reflex, and physical relationship continually inform movement, and how a dancer can develop greater range and responsiveness without imposing a predetermined form. Her approach brings the technical and perceptual dimensions of movement into the same field, using physical investigation to develop embodied skill while refining our understanding of how relationships between bodies, weight, and space unfold while in movement.
This workshop will take place at DJD Studio 1.
Featured Artists
Jennifer Clarke · Dancer | Choreographer
Jennifer Clarke is a Calgary-based dance artist, choreographer, improviser, and somatic educator. A graduate of the University of Calgary Dance Program, she recently returned to Calgary after more than 25 years of living, dancing, and performing in Vancouver. Throughout her career in British Columbia, Jennifer has performed and collaborated with numerous choreographers and artists, developing a practice grounded in contemporary dance, improvisation, and collaboration. She has studied Contact Improvisation extensively, including long-term study with Peter Bingham, and has developed a deep practice of improvising with both dancers and musicians. Her performance work has taken her across Canada and to Europe, including England and Italy. Jennifer's artistic practice is rooted in responsiveness, physical intelligence, and the possibilities that emerge when performers listen closely to one another and to their environment. She is interested in improvisation not simply as spontaneous movement, but as a sophisticated practice of composition, decision-making, and relationship. Her work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council, and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Alongside her performance and choreographic work, Jennifer is a yoga teacher and somatic educator, bringing decades of movement experience into her teaching and ongoing research. She is currently developing new choreographic work in Calgary, including Lifelong, an AFA-supported dance project exploring adaptation, disorientation, and the body's capacity to reorganize.