About Jenny

A Boston-based trauma informed, culturally responsive, kinetic storyteller, Jenny Oliver is inspired by the transformative power of movement to educate, heal, and connect. An enrolled member of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag, her experiences as an African American person of Cape Verdean/Native American heritage inform her creative process. She is a professor of dance at Tufts University, Emerson College and Mount Holyoke College. Her choreography has been presented at the Boston Center for the Arts, the MFA Boston, Mark Morris Dance Center, Tufts Arts Galleries and most recently presented at WBUR’s CitySpace, One’s to Watch Series. In 2020, utilizing a holistic approach, she developed a civic engagement residency with the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics/Office of Budget Management. When she is not teaching or choreographing she is a performer with Roots Uprising under the Artistic Direction of Nailah Randall-Bellinger.