Jennifer Polyocan

A native of Great Neck, New York, Jennifer received her training at the prestigious School of American Ballet and with Nancy Bielski at the David Howard School of Dance. After graduating from Professional Children's School in NYC, she joined the Miami City Ballet where she remained for five years having the opportunity to perform soloist and principal roles. Jennifer later joined Wes Chapman's Alabama Ballet and the Washington Ballet where she performed soloist and principal roles. Jennifer performed title roles in Coppelia and Giselle and dance principal roles in works by Antony Tudor, Nacho Duato, Septime Webre, Kirk Peterson, and Dwight Rhoden.

In addition to a career in ballet, Polyocan is a graduate of New College of California with a degree in Arts and Social Change. She has taught ballet for over 20 years to both children and adults. She has taught at ODC, UC Berkeley, Smuin Ballet, Amy Stewart’s Imagery, Belvoir Ballet, and the University of San Francisco. She acquired a certification in the Vaganova method of levels 1-3 from the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet, and training in RPM (Revolutionary Principals of Movement). Polyocan has studied extensively with her mentor and friend Augusta Moore, and shares many of her teaching pedagogies. She has completed a three-year training course at the Alexander Technique Center of Cambridge.

Jennifer is ATI certified and also certified in PBT (Progressing Ballet TechnqiueTM) Throughout her career she experienced mind-body techniques as an essential and valuable measure for preventing injuries and firmly believes that body awareness and curiosity leads to an intelligent dancer, performer and artist.