Jennifer Owen

Co-Artistic Director, Choreographer,

Dancer

Jennifer Owen's ballet career has taken her around the globe.  After training with Pacific Northwest Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet School, School of American Ballet, and the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, she went on to dance with the Russian State Ballet, Moscow Renaissance Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, BalletMet, and had the unique experience of appearing as a guest artist with the National Ballet of Turkmenistan.  Notable roles Owen has danced include the title role in “Giselle,” Kitri in “Don Quixote,” principal roles in George Balanchine's “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux” and “Donizetti Variations,” and the central pas de deux in Todd Bolender's “Arena.”  Owen is artistic director, dancer, and choreographer for the Owen/Cox Dance Group.  She has choreographed over 20 new works for the Owen/Cox Dance Group, as well as nine works for Kansas City Ballet's "In the Wings" choreographic workshop, and a winning entry for the 2006 Columbus Choreography Project.  Owen is the recipient of a 2000 Princess Grace Honorarium.

Brad Cox

Co-Artistic Director,

Music Director,

Composer

Composer and arranger Brad Cox is co-artistic director of Owen/Cox Dance Group, a group he formed with dancer/choreographer Jennifer Owen in order to perform their original music and dance collaborations.  He is also founder and contributing composer for The People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City, a musicians’ collective dedicated to the performance of new large ensemble jazz music.  Cox’s musical influences range from liturgical chant and traditional folkloric music to popular music and free jazz, with a particular interest in the communal aspects of music making.  A composer in the uniquely American Ellington tradition, he has dedicated the last 20 years of his life to forming creative collaborative relationships with musicians and to writing music for those musicians.  Cox studied composition at UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance under James Mobberley and Gerald Kemner and is a recipient of the 2010 Charlotte Street Foundation Generative Performing Artist Award and the 2009 Tanne Foundation Award.