Jennifer Hicks born in Lawrenceville, NJ has been living in the Hudson Valley since 2015. Ms. Hicks is a visual artist, performer, choreographer, and teacher. She received her MFA from Naropa University in Contemporary Performance, her BFA from Tufts University and Degree in Fine Arts from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston. She has been a guest artist at Naropa University in the MFA Contemporary Performance Department for several years and North Western University in Louisiana, among other institutions. Jennifer has won several prestigious awards for her work including The Traveling Scholars Award from The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Franklin Furnace for an installation/performance about medicine called “Training For Uncertainty”. She was a member of the performance collective in Boston called Mobius Inc. and an original founding member of the former performance collective called Pan 9, also based in Boston. She is also the owner/director of Jane St. Art Center in Saugerties, NY.

As a dancer, Jennifer studied ballet, modern and jazz since childhood but began her interest in Butoh back in the mid 1980’s. She began to study Butoh seriously in the early 1990’s at the San Francisco Butoh Festival. Her main performance influences are Tatsumi Hijikata, KATSURA Kan, Maureen Fleming, Wendell Beavers, Barbara Dilley, puppet theater, early cartoons (yes, I mean Bugs Bunny!), nature and silent films.  She has been dancing in KASTURA Kans International Dance Company since 1999 and has her own contemporary dance company based in Boston and Boulder CO called CHIMERAlab Dance Theatre.  She has been teaching movement, creating original theater and performing for over 30 years. Ms. Hicks is a certified Shintaido Instructor, and a Registered Yoga Teacher with The National Yoga Alliance. 

She is a certified TranceDance International Facilitator studying with Wilbert Alix since 1986 and was assisting him in his workshops in Hawaii, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Texas.

Her training also includes graduate level training in • The Viewpoints with Wendell Beavers, Mary Overlie and SITI Company • Roy Hart Vocal Training with Ethie Friend and Jonathan Hart • Body Mind Centering® principles with Erika Berland, Suzuki Actors Training with members of SITI Company • Contemplative Dance with Barbara Dilley • Vocal Training with Meredith Monk • Lecoq Neutral Mask with Amy Russell • Grotowski Based Physical Theater with Stephen Wangh • Performance Art with Marilyn Arsem (founding director of Mobius) • Moment Work from Moises Kaufman and Leigh Fondakowski. She studied shiatsu massage and acupuncture at Boston School of Shiatsu, New England School of Acupuncture and is a licensed massage therapist.