Meet the Dancers

Jennifer Martin

Jennifer Martin is a resident of Virginia. She has lived in the Princeton area during the academic year since 2008 in order to study ballet and other forms of dance at Princeton Dance and Theater and to perform with the DanceVision Performance Company. Jennifer has spent her summers studying dance at Lines Ballet, San Francisco, Ballet West, Kaatsbaan, and Maple Conservatory summer intensives. She is currently a senior at Princeton Day School, where she recently  worked as the dance captain of the musical version of "The Secret Garden." She will appear in DanceVision's "The Secret Garden" as the Dark Angel and as Fox.

Jennifer Martin as the Snow Queen in the premiere production of DanceVision's The Snow Queen, December 2012

DV:  How old were you when you started to dance?  What made you fall in love with ballet?

JM: I started taking classes when I was 3, but before that I used to stand at the door of my older sister's classes and mimic the steps they were doing. Watching her classes, and the rest of the older girls' classes, made me fall in love with ballet. I wanted to be exactly like them.

DV: What has been your favorite role to dance?

JM: It's a tie between a rat in The Nutcracker and the Snow Queen in The Snow Queen. Being a rat was just an absolute blast, and what girl doesn't want to be a queen?

Jennifer Martin as a Rat in DanceVision's The Nutcracker, 2009

DV: What has been your most challenging?
JM: Snow Queen. Physically, the choreography was very demanding, and it was tough to delve into the character while performing it. I learned, however, that the choreography becomes easier the more in character you are; it takes your mind off of how tired you are.

Jennifer Martin as the Snow Queen and Max Azaro as Kai, 2011

DV:  Can you explain to us what dance and ballet has meant to you and how it has impacted your life?

JM: Dance has been and is everything to me. I have completely fallen in love with its ability to encourage and require me to strive for perfection while relentlessly reminding me that perfection does not exist. It forces me to clear my head on even the worst of days. And the art form on its own is absolutely gorgeous. It's fun to feel beautiful.

DV:  How is the DanceVision Performance Company unique compared to other area ballet companies?

JM: We are treated like professionals. The dancers are given tremendous respect and responsibility, and I think being afforded these things yields intelligent dancers, which are often hard to come by at the student level. I find the atmosphere of DanceVision to be far more mature than companies like it.

Jennifer Martin as Spider in DanceVision's The Secret Garden, May 2011

Come see Jennifer as Dark Angel and Fox in DanceVision's The Secret Garden, an original ballet choreographed by Risa Kaplowitz, on April 28 and 29 at The College of New Jersey's Kendall Theater.