Modern Connections, founded and directed by Jenny Oliver, creates access to Modern dance and cultivates belonging for people who may, or may not, consider themselves dancers by:

Offering weekly low-cost public adult dance classes
Expanding mentorship opportunities through private and semi-private lessons
Hosting interdisciplinary workshops
Cultivating partnerships with public, private, and government entities
Choreographing thought-provoking performances.

Movement is one of the first forms of communication that we experience. In the womb we are moving and then somewhere along the way to adulthood we lose our intentional relationship to it. As a lifelong embodied practitioner, Jenny understands the importance of being connected to the body as a technology for expression, processing information, spiritual alignment, scholarship, and archival methods, as well as a pathway to empathize and feel compassion for others. Movement and Dance is all encompassing and as an artist, Jenny thinks of her work functioning as a trojan horse for liberation.

Throughout Jenny's 21-year career as an artist and educator, she has cultivated a trauma-informed, culturally-responsive, kinetic storytelling practice. She believes in the power of dance to catalyze meaningful and effective change in the lives of others and works at the intersection of dance, education, and collective collaboration to elevate systemic issues affecting Black and Indigenous people.

2026 Informal Rep Class Showing