photo by Andrew Fassbender
Jennifer spent 12 years in New York and enjoyed a successful theatre career both there and touring all over the US. She spent two years performing as Meg Giry in The Phantom of the Opera and has worked at the Kennedy Center in DC, the Pantages Theatre in LA, and the Chicago Opera House, as well as doing several off-Broadway plays and readings in New York. Favorite roles include Anne in La Cage Aux Folles, both the Baker's Wife and Little Red in Into the Woods, both Sister Mary Amnesia and Sister Mary Leo in Nunsense, and Kristine in A Chorus Line. She’s worked with such respected theatres as Walnut Street Playhouse and North Carolina Theatre as well as area favorites like Music Theatre Wichita and Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, and she has sung as a guest soloist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Since moving back to her hometown of Dallas to raise her family, Jennifer has continued to work with pre-professional and professional dancers and often has clients fly in from all over the country for sessions. Jennifer offers private coaching in ballet, helping dancers prepare for competitions such as YAGP and the Prix de Lausanne as well as demo reels for companies and colleges. Jennifer teaches ballet, pointe, and variations as a guest teacher and is brought in for workshops and guest lectures at schools across the country, educating in injury prevention and the developing role of dance medicine in ballet schools in the 21st century, as well as mentoring young dancers one-on-one. Jennifer has presented at the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science world conference in 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023. She has written for Dance Magazine online, The Brainy Ballerina and the Dance Medicine Education Initiative. Jennifer maintains a blog for dancers, and is co-host of the Bendy Bodies Podcast, a podcast for dancers with hypermobility, with host Linda Bluestein MD.
Jennifer has also been interviewed by Dance Magazine, Dance Spirit, and Tune Up Fitness.
In addition, she has been the guest on multiple podcasts such as TuTu Thin, Beyond the Steps, Beyond the Pointe, and Dance; Better.
Jennifer Milner started her career as a ballet dancer, dancing with local Dallas companies before spending summers apprenticing with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Boston Ballet’s second company. Raised in the Vaganova technique, Jennifer also studied the RAD syllabus with Joyce Seaborn-Bader and had a thorough grounding in Balanchine technique, both with Patricia Wilde at PBT and with several teachers in New York City, performing such Balanchine classics as The Four Temperaments (Phlegmatic), Square Dance, and Pas de Dix. Though classically trained, Jennifer has extensively studied all major theatre dance styles as well as tap, modern, Luigi, and jazz. After moving to New York Jennifer pursued musical theatre while still dancing with small New York companies, studying regularly under such famous teachers as Madame Darvash, Christine Wright, Elena Kunikova, Christina Bernal, Madame Youskevitch, and Chet Walker.
After a knee injury ended a successful performing career, Jennifer became certified in the Pilates method of exercise, graduating from the Kane School of Core Integration under the renowned Kelly Kane. In addition to teaching clients at the Kane School and Westside Dance Physical Therapy (the official physical therapists for New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet), Jennifer was also a member of the faculty of the Kane School teacher-training program. Jennifer has trained a wide variety of clients, including Oscar winners, Olympic medalists, and world-famous dancers from New York City Ballet, the Kirov Ballet, ABT, San Francisco Ballet, Royal Ballet, and more. Jennifer mentored under the dance medicine pioneer Marika Molnar and certified in rehabilitation training through Ms. Molnar. Jennifer is certified in Mari-Jose Blom’s Smart Spine techniques and Marie Walton-Mahon's Progressing Ballet Techniques and has taken several workshops with Lisa Howell, physioball with Leslie Powell, pre-natal Pilates with Debbi Goodman, and the Feldenkrais method. She has also taken seminars in Alexander Technique, kinesiology, and Eric Franklin’s method, and she is a certified pointe shoe fitter.
photo by Fermaint Photography
Her wide and varied health,training and rehabilitation background, along with her dance experience and her own encounters with injuries, gives Jennifer a unique insight and perspective on getting and maintaining a strong, healthy body at peak performance level. Jennifer is a member of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science, Doctors for Dancers, a founding member of DanseMedica, on the advisory board of Minding the Gap, and is a Nationally Certified Pilates Teacher.