Jennifer Lynn DePalo was born on June 3, 1974, the first of two children born to Jo-Ann Hayes and John DePalo. She graduated from the Maple Street Elementary, Junior High School, and High School in 1992. She is a magna cum laude graduate of the Boston Conservatory with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance in 1996. From Boston, she immediately moved to New York City after receiving a Coca Cola Scholarship Living Stipend for Artistic Excellence and joined the Martha Graham Dance Ensemble. Three months thereafter, she was invited as a full company member of the world renowned Martha Graham Dance Company in November of 1997. She has traveled the world performing major roles such as Eve in “Embattled Garden“, Chief Celebrant in “Arcs of Light”, Lead Woman in “Sketches from Chronicle“, Mary in “El Peniteste“, and The Princess in “Cave of the Heart”.
This July, Jennifer was honored to be promoted to the highest level of performer; she is now a Principal Dancer of the Martha Graham Dance Company with top Playbill billing.
In 1998, Jennifer received the Princess Grace Award for Artistic Excellence and performed for the Royal family of Monaco. She is also a Principal at Buglisi/Forman Dance Theatre and was a Principal at Ballet Hispanico from 2000-2003. Each year, Jennifer is invited to teach the Ballet Nacionale de Mexico in Quertaro, Mexico, the National Institute of Theatre in Barcelona, Spain, and the Centro de Andalucia de Danza in Seville, Spain, and has been a rehearsal director for Metros Danza, a contemporary dance company in Barcelona. Jennifer also is a certified Gyrotonic instructor and rehabilitates clients as young as eight-years-old up to 83-years-old. She has two beautiful dogs, Coco, a Japanese Chin Poodle and Muffin, a tiny Yorkie.
Jennifer has tremendous love and dedication and pride in her Hudson Falls roots. She is fortunate to return to the community to perform with the Adirondack Junior Ballet Company‘s production of “The Nutcracker” as the Sugar Plum Fairy. She adores returning to teach, coach, and mentor the young artists from the community who have big dreams of dancing for their future.
Jennifer attributes her success to Mary Cortese for her advice to dive deeper into technical dance at such a young age. Jennifer actually began dancing in the basement of Mary Cortese’s home. She would also like to thank a few teachers who made an enormous difference in her life and confidence to be where she is today. Joyce Irwin, for always believing in her and allowing her to dance with the choir, Mrs. LaFountain, her cheerleading coach, for not holding her back, ever, and Mrs. Potvin for also believing that through positivism, you can achieve anything you set your mind on.
She would like to dedicate this Wall of Distinction to her mother, Jo-Ann Hayes, and her grandparents, Irene Sherman, and the late Edward Sherman.