graham
First Name
Jennifer
Last Name
Graham
Position
Assistant Dir. of MFA program
Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance
Email
jen.graham@wilson.edu
Academic Program
Bio

Jen Graham, MFA CMA RSME/T is a multidisciplinary movement educator and artist, grounded in somatic practice and process. She creates inclusive and exploratory spaces to instigate shifts in awareness, perspective, and pattern through embodied experiences. Using innovative and unconventional approaches, she promotes curiosity, investigation, and connection to manifest understanding and growth.

Jen holds both a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Fine Arts Degree in Dance Choreography and Performance from the University of Maryland. She also holds her Certification as a Movement Analyst from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies and is a Registered Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist through the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association.

Jen has worked in higher education in various roles since 2012, serving as guest artist, choreographer, lecturer, and adjunct faculty in programs ranging from Associates to Fine Arts Conservatories for both Dance and Theatre. She is currently the Assistant Director of the Interdisciplinary Master of Fine Arts Program and Assistant Professor of Dance at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Previously, she was a lecturer in the BFA Dance Program at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, where she also served as a contributor and producer of several interdisciplinary initiatives at the intersection of performing arts and health. She has also taught in the undergraduate Dance Program at the University of Maryland, where she concurrently co-created and co-directed the DeLeComm embodied leadership and communication program for PhD students as an interdisciplinary partnership with the Neuro and Cognitive Science Program. Jen has contributed to developing related curriculum for The Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies.

In addition to her work in higher ed, Jen is the Co-Founder and Financial Director of Synergy Space, a cooperative dance and movement space, where she works with fellow artists, educators, and students to bolster a thriving community of movers and creators. Furthermore, Jen maintains a small private practice, Momentum Movement, where she engages somatic-based approaches for individual and group movement and dance training, as well as creative process and performance.

Jen has taught in the private sector for over 20 years, 13 of those as the founding owner and director of Project C Studios, a private dance school and performance space, which she sold in 2019. There she built a highly respected national standards-based dance program with an accomplished and diverse faculty, focused on cultivating the unique artistic perspectives and voices of each individual student and developing community engagement through arts education and performance. Additionally, Jen has served as a master educator at a variety of schools, festivals, and conferences, including The Maryland State Dance Festival and The American College Dance Association Mid-Atlantic Conference. She has also choreographed recognized and awarded theatrical and commercial work for regional dance and theatre companies, studios, and schools, and has coached and mentored title-winning competitive dancers. Jen has performed and presented both commercial and concert work regionally for over 15 years, including performances at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, Joe’s Movement Emporium, the Metlife Stadium (televised on CBS), and The Kennedy Center. Further, Jen served for two terms as the President of the Maryland Council for Dance.

Jen’s work and research interests span the range of what it means to be embodied and in movement – from anatomical to abstract, functional to expressive/communicative, self to other, personal to universal – and, ultimately, the nature of the relationships these tensions create. She believes that embodied awareness is the key to unlocking potential, personal agency, and fulfillment, and creates the vital foundation upon which empathy, understanding, and connection are built.