Artist Detail

Jennifer Backhaus

Choreographer - Dance Company

About the artist: Jennifer Backhaus is the Founder and Artistic Director of Backhausdance, Orange County’s award winning contemporary dance company. Jennifer was included in OC Metro’s 40 Under 40 in 2009 and was recently honored by Chapman University as Alumni of the Year for her success with Backhausdance. As a choreographer, Jennifer’s works have been commissioned and produced by the Los Angeles Ballet, Orange County Regional Ballet, the McCallum Theatre, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Utah Regional Ballet, Chapman University, Mount San Antonio College, Santa Ana College, Impact Dance Theater, TDC of the Bay Area, and Brigham Young University, among others. 

Many of Jennifer’s works have been honored by Regional Dance America and her piece Disintegration was selected for national performances with the American College Dance Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. For Backhausdance she has created fifteen pieces, three of which (Sitting on January, Love and Other Impossibilities and Shift) have received multiple Lester Horton Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography. At the McCallum Theatre’s Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival, Jennifer has been the recipient of three consecutive choreography awards for her work with Backhausdance.

Jennifer is currently a member of the full time dance faculty at Chapman University where she teaches Modern Dance Technique, Dance Improvisation and Introduction to Dance Studies. She is also a teaching artist for the Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ education programs where she shares her love for dance and choreography with local students in public and private schools across Southern California.