Meet Kristen Jorden

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen Jorden.

Kristen, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started out my adult life as a high school history teacher in inner-city Los Angeles. It was emotionally and physically exhausting, and I wrote, quilted, and danced as a way to cope with the stress. My mother passed away while I was living in Los Angeles, and my husband and I decided to move back to Colorado to be closer to our remaining family. I taught in some tough high schools in Colorado after we moved.

When I turned 30, I realized that if I lived to be as old as my mom, I would have already lived over half my life already. It was sobering, and I began to feel a deep discontent with the 60-hour work weeks as an employee of a very broken and unhealthy public education system. While teaching, I found an amazing tap dance teacher, Jacob Stonebraker, and his hour-long class every week really saved me from total insanity.

When he got cast in the international touring cast of Tap Dogs, I was so jealous that he was pursuing his dream. My dream was to spend more time doing creative things like dancing and writing and quilting. Inspired by Jacob, I decided to take a huge leap and attend the Big Apple Tap Festival in New York which was way above my ability level. Nevertheless, I went and while at that festival I realized I couldn’t teach any longer. So, I quit my career as a teacher to become an artist, which was the scariest (and most rewarding) thing I have ever done.

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s been so hard. So many people frown upon quitting a “respectable” career to “be an artist” which they don’t see as a “real” job. Even though I make money, they think I’m unemployed, or wonder if this is “it” for me. Their doubt mirrors my own doubt—I have to confront my fear of failure, fear of success and fear that I’m not contributing to society. I sometimes still feel imposter syndrome about everything I do.

I didn’t grow up dancing. I started to tap at 19, and ballet at 32 (I started pointe work at 36!), so I have struggled to not compare myself and my journey to dancers who stared when they were three. I am also 6’2″ so my height has been a challenge in learning to dance (and accepting myself as a dancer).

Luckily, I have a great support system of other artists, I read a lot of books about embracing the creative life, and I am an extremely organized and ambitious person, so I’ve come a really long way since I quit teaching!

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I am a writer, a dancer, and a quilter. Like most artists, I’ve cobbled together quite an interesting and varied work life for myself. I teach ballet at Broche Ballet, a ballet studio for grown-ups; I teach adult tap at Cherry Creek Dance; I teach private tap lesson in my home; I co-own a company (Tappy Feet) that teaches non-traditional tap to adults and creates unique products to help people learn to tap in a new way. My focus in my dance jobs is bringing tap and ballet to adults who wouldn’t think of themselves as dancers, and/or who would never take dance classes in a traditional studio setting. The classes I teach through Broche and Tappy Feet understand that adults learn differently than children, and learning something new as an adult carries with it lots of unique challenges as well as opportunities. In my classes, we learn through play, through connecting with a community, and through not taking ourselves too seriously, but also through honoring the hard work we put into learning something we feel passionately about. I feel so proud of this mission, especially when I get to know adults who tell me that being a ballerina or a tap dancer has always been on their bucket list. No other dance studios in Denver approach adult dance in this way.

The rest of my artistic life (while it hasn’t brought in much money) consists of quilting (I make small art wall quilts) and writing (historical fiction and memoir). I wallow in rejection—quilts that aren’t accepted into shows, essays that don’t get picked for literary journals, and endless query letters for my novel that are rejected by agents and publishers. To help cope with the rejection, I take a ton of dance classes, not just ballet and tap, but Irish and aerial as well.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and the least?
I grew up in Colorado (in the mountains West of Boulder) and Colorado has pulled me back every time I’ve moved away. The mountains are in my blood (my parents met at a horse camp near Gold Hill when they were teenagers) and I love that Denver is close to the mountains. Denver has an amazing art scene and I’ve met the most incredible artists and dancers here. I feel really supported as an artist with all the restaurants willing to display local art, all the dance classes I can take, all the writing programs and groups I can join. I am also a history junkie and I am absolutely in love with the history of the Front Range and Denver.

What I like least are the traffic and air pollution—which is when I head out of town to the mountains for a long weekend…

Pricing:

• Tappy Feet Classes • $15 for a drop-in class •Punch cards give discounts on classes and range from $120 to $300 • We do birthday parties and team bonding events. Pricing will vary so check online for details.
• Broche Ballet Classes •For a 90-minute technique class once a week it’s $165 monthly
• I teach private tap lessons at a rate of $55 per hour
• You can purchase my quilts from my website at kristenpoppejorden.com

Contact Info:

• Website: kristenpoppejorden.com AND mytappyfeet.com AND brocheballet.com
• Email: kjorden@gmail.com
• Instagram: @kristenpoppejorden

Image Credit:
Becky Michaud Photography

Getting in touch: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.