Jennifer Ilse grew up in a small town in northern Wisconsin (pop. 3770) building forts in the woods and catching frogs, and began performing at age three. She has spent her life in dance and theater, and has also been deeply involved in music, competitive sports, and continues to have a giant love for the outdoors through backpacking and gardening. At age 10 the only dance teacher in her town died, and without any other opportunities for dance training, she gave up this first impulse of her life and pursued a career in business and finance. After finishing an accounting degree at UW Superior, she became a professional financial planner. During this period of business suits and piles of paperwork, she began her first professional dance studies in Duluth, Minnesota at the Duluth Dance Theater. It was here that her long buried infatuation with dance was reawakened, and so she quit her financial career to immerse herself in dance studies.  Eventually she moved to Oregon and studied at the Eugene Ballet, Musical Feet tap school, and at the University of Oregon. She performed four seasons with the Dance Theatre of Oregon, a modern dance company creating original works under the direction of Marc Siegel and Pamela Lehan-Siegel, whose choreography is inspired by their history with David Parsons, Ballet West, and Ballet Trockadero. In Eugene, Jennifer also taught ballet, tap, and modern dance classes to adults and children, as well as dance/theater workshops.

After moving to Minneapolis in 1997, she met Paul and found a new home with this weird artistic hybrid they decided to call Off-Leash Area. She also worked on a number of dance projects over 6 years with choreographer Gerry Girouard, known for his mix of acrobatics, capoeira, tango and modern dance, and also Ray Terrill, John Munger, and Wicked Sister Dance Company.

During her 10 years with Off-Leash Area, Jennifer has taken on various roles in directing, performing, choreographing, and designing while persistently exploring the world that lies between both dance and theater, going forever deeper in the language that she shares with Paul. She received the 2008 State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant for dance, and was chosen with Paul as the 2005 City Pages Artists of the Year. She is also thrilled to have been part of directing a re-creation of “Our Town” at Macalester College in 2009, and will be creating a work for The O'Shaughnessy at St. Catherine's Snapshots: Reflections of Women - New Dance Works 2010-2011, which will be performed at The O'Shaughnessy September 17th and 18th, 2010.