If you’ve spent any time on TikTok or Instagram recently, chances are you’ve seen one of dancer Jennifer Mika’s videos: she keeps popping off for her Dougie-to-ballet choreo to the Enya x Cali Swag remix. She describes being shocked by how well the videos featuring her mum did during Covid and audiences keep coming back for her unique style that fuses hip-hop and ballet. But what they’re really coming back for is the world Jennifer has built around it.
Japanese-American and based in Los Angeles, Jennifer grew up deeply connected to her Japanese heritage through her mother, whose influence continues to shape not only her identity, but also the stories she chooses to tell through movement, film and the wider content she creates. That sense of cultural duality threads through everything, from the music she gravitates towards to the way she talks about herself and her life online.
Now working across dance, acting and creative direction, she joins a new vanguard of multi-disciplinary artists, on and offline. Her videos often feel intimate and spontaneous, but behind them is a carefully crafted approach to storytelling. She is openly experimental – different styles and influences collide naturally and create a movement language that feels entirely her own.
For our latest The Way I Work video, Jennifer invited Service95 into her studio for a typical day of rehearsals and training. Between dancing in the studio, conversations about identity and moments of improvisation, she opens up about her creative process, the origins of her distinctive fusion of styles and the freedom she gets from dancing. Sometimes, she explains, it’s as simple as pressing play on a track and allowing herself to follow wherever the music leads.
