A smiling, feminine-presenting Asian American with bob-length black and purple hair. They are wearing a leather jacket and a goldenrod shirt.
Creating spaces of belonging
Pronouns: she/they
Jen is a queer movement, fight, and intimacy director; teacher; martial artist; and occasional creative. She teaches stage combat classes and works in professional and educational theatre throughout southeast Michigan. They are a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors and have trained with Dueling Arts International, Intimacy Directors and Choreographers, and Theatrical Intimacy Education. As a fight and intimacy director, she thoughtfully collaborates with other artists to create safe, sustainable, and dynamic movements in storytelling using modern combat and theatre techniques. Theatres she has worked with include Detroit Public Theatre, The Croswell Opera House, Obsidian Theatre Festival, Detroit Repertory Theatre, Oakland University, and Livonia Shakespeare in the Park.
Jen is the co-founder and a lead instructor at Theatrica Gladiatoria, a year-round academy in SE Michigan for stage and film combat. They're also the co-coordinator of the Mitten Mayhem Stage Combat Workshop held annually at the end of October. They're passionate about lifelong learning, trauma-informed practices, intimacy and consent work, and greater BIPOC and LGBTQ+ representation in the arts.
In their free time, Jen collects board games, house plants, cats, graphic design inspiration tips, and recipe YouTube videos. They are bad at social media and keeping up with pop culture.
Quotes they live by:
“We are what we repeatedly do. Therefore excellence is not an act, but a way of living.” - paraphrase of a quote by Will Durant
“Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward.” - John C. Maxwell
Links to resumes:
“Jen is an exceptional teacher...She has an instructional style that promotes confidence, trust, and a great spirit of collaboration...She is patient, encouraging, and amazingly adaptable to her learners’ needs, limitations, and interests.”