Team Taught: Mary and Jenn
Mary earned her Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Design from Buffalo State College and her M.F.A in Dance from the University at Buffalo. She has been a longtime member of the Greater Niagara Ballet Company, serving as a principal dancer and and recently became the Artistic Director. She has performed with and choreographed for various dance and theater companies including the GNBC, Configuration Dance Theater, Neglia Ballet Artists, The National Ballet of Canada, Red Thread Theatre, Buffalo Aerial Dance and Torn Space Theater.
Mary began training on silks in 2016, and began incorporating aerial work into her dance choreography shortly afterwards. With Buffalo Aerial Dance, she has performed at Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts, Music is Art, Old Falls Street (Niagara Falls), Lancaster Steampunk Festival, and The Great Blue Heron Music Festival. She also performed aerial silks in the Lockport Palace Theater’s production of Pippin, and she has choreographed many innovative aerial pieces for Buffalo Aerial Dance.
Jenn grew up as a cheerleader and a gymnast, and found circus arts in 2016. She began her aerial journey on the silks and soon after, fell in love with rope and trapeze. She also trains in acroyoga and general goofiness. Jenn loves creating new drills and sequences. She is known around the studio for her dynamic style, tornado-speed spins, and for kicking everyone’s butts in the best of ways.
Jenn began teaching intermediate silks in 2019. In 2022, she moved to Cleveland where she was a coach and performer with the Crooked River Circus for a year, but in 2023 we got her back! She has coached both Intermediate and Advanced Silks as well as Beginner and Intermediate Trapeze. She has performed at the Leonard Oakes Steampunk Festival, The Lockport Exchange Circus, University at Buffalo Homecoming Carnival, Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts, and many other events.