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Pilates trainer/movement specialist/ballet coach
Jennifer Milner is a ballet coach and certified Pilates trainer specializing in athletes, dancers and post-injury recoveries. As a classical ballet dancer, Jennifer danced with several companies across the United States before moving to New York to do musical theatre, most notably playing Meg Giry in The Phantom of the Opera. After a knee injury ended a successful performing career, Jennifer became certified in the Pilates method of exercise, graduating from the Kane School of Core Integration under the renowned Kelly Kane, then mentored under the dance medicine pioneer Marika Molnar and certified in dance medicine through Ms. Molnar. She worked for Westside Dance Physical Therapy (the official physical therapists for New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet), and has trained a wide variety of clients, including Oscar winners, Olympic medalists, and dancers from New York City Ballet, the Kirov Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Royal Ballet, and more. Jennifer has also studied with Lisa Howell, Marie-Jose Blom, and Eric Franklin.
Jennifer has been a co-host of Bendy Bodies, a podcast devoted to hypermobility issues. She is a member of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science and presented at the world conference in Houston in 2017, Montreal in 2019, and at the virtual 2021 conference. She is a founding member of Dansemedica as well as a member of Doctors for Dancers and serves on the advisory board of Minding the Gap, an organization dedicated to improving mental health support in the dance world.
Jennifer’s ability to move between ballet studios and cross-training venues, addressing biomechanical imbalances and technique dysfunctions in a practical strength-training way, has made her a sought-after guest speaker for dance schools and companies, and her many years of training dancers across the hypermobility spectrum have made her passionate about educating dancers and teachers on how to train hypermobility in a healthy and efficient way. Her website is www.jennifer-milner.com or you can find her on Instagram @jennifer.milner.
In this episode, Dr. Chelsea Pierotti discusses coping with dance injuries and transitions, both from a physical and psychological perspective. She explains that the way dancers appraise their injuries and their emotional res...
In this episode, Dr. Linda Bluestein and Jennifer Milner discuss the intersection of hypermobility and disordered eating in dance with their guest, Josh Spell. They explore the prevalence of eating disorders in dancers and the impact of social media and …
Travel comes with a lot of uncertainty: flights get canceled, hotel reservations are lost, luggage never turns up. But add the complications of traveling with a chronic disorder like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, and voyaging becom...
For most artistic athletes, competition is a part of life. Whether you’re a dancer, skater, gymnast, or cheerleader chances are you’re competing at some point. Competitions can be grueling, multi-day events consisting of 14-h...
What is overstretching, and why should we talk about it? As the artistic world seems to demand ever more extreme ranges of motion from its dancers and athletes, many people turn to overstretching as a way to stay competitive...
For people working with artistic athletes such as dancers, circus artists, and gymnasts, training the hypermobile body brings its own set of challenges. Shepherding a “wonky body” through healthy training may feel overwhelmin...