Jessica Markham

Staff Writer

Two years ago, Northwest’s modern dance classes were mostly focused on preparation for the dance performance at the end of the year. However, when Jen Sherman joined the Northwest staff, the modern dance department began to change.

Even though she is a modern dancer, Sherman tries to incorporate ballet into her curriculum because she believes “ballet is the staple for everything,” which is different from how the modern classes were taught in previous years.

Sherman incorporates academics into her classes through personal reflection assignments and iSpys, which ask the dancers to write about dance currently in the news. She is trying to eliminate the separation of dance and academics that has been in the modern department. She says refuses to “teach stupid dancers.”

To reach out to the surrounding community, Sherman also created the Northwest Dance Ensemble, a company for students in the highest levels of ballet, modern and jazz. The Dance Ensemble performed for the Metro School in November and performed at the Irwin Avenue Elementary School in early December.

Sherman came to Northwest in the beginning of the 2007-08 school year to replace Kimberley Hotchner, who left to focus on her family. Sherman started out as a part time staff member teaching modern dance, but has now become a full time dance teacher of both modern and ballet classes. Since being at Northwest, Sherman has made several changes to the Modern Dance department regarding the way it is seen by other students and departments, its curriculum and even the way it functions.

Part of the reason she made these changes, besides her strong belief in Northwest’s potential was the influence of Sherman’s own dance background.

Sherman started dancing at the age of three and went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in Dance Performance and Choreography at UNC Greensboro. Initially, she wanted to become a ballerina but height restrictions discouraged her from pursuing that dream.

At UNCG, she studied the technique of innovative modern choreographers such as Cunningham, Horton and Graham. She also became connected with the Trisha Brown Dance Company; a legendary New York City based Dance Company, where she studied with Mia Michaels, an accomplished contemporary dance choreographer famous for her work on the show “So You Think You Can Dance.”

Amelia Hartsell, the jazz teacher at Northwest, agrees that Sherman has brought a change and she believes she is “different from any other dance teacher here.”