2026

“Dream, Believe, Achieve” is Jen’s mantra. She says, “If you have the right support at the right time, it can take you further and further.”

Jen co-founded DanceSyndrome in 2009 with her parents, Sue and Malcolm Blackwell. At 18 she knew she wanted to be a community dance leader. The family searched for ten years and couldn’t find the right support to enable Jen to follow her dreams. They didn’t know what was possible, but they knew they had to do something. Jen has Down syndrome and says, “My disability doesn’t define me.”

Today Jen, a multi-award-winning dance leader, sits on the DanceSyndrome board and co-leads community dance sessions and workshops every week, in person and online. She performs with the DanceSyndrome Dance Performance Collective and is a role model for the more than 10,000 people DanceSyndrome reaches each year. “DanceSyndrome has given me my life,” she says. “I give my life to DanceSyndrome.”

With Sue and Malcolm, Jen shares the family’s story of the art of the possible, told in Sue’s book Beyond Extraordinary: Who are you missing? speaking to audiences in every sector about what changes when people stop deciding what others can do. She also supports Powering Possibilities CIC, led by her parents, which helps people and organisations stop waiting and start doing. Its belief is one Jen lives every day: “Every person matters. Every dream is a possibility.”

With a support team, Jen lives independently from her parents and leads a full life with purpose. She loves skiing, martial arts, playing the flute and diamond art. She says, “I have the right to a life of my choosing.”

Jen wants to get the world dancing, with everyone moving in their own unique, accessible way.