Above (l-r) Coaches Jennifer Miller, Jennifer Heurlin-Brenne, Sarah McClish and Amy Czuhajewski, with Jordan Brenne (red dress), following a solo dance competition.
By Troy Schwindt
As Jordan Brenne prepares for next week’s National Solo Dance Final in Salt Lake City, the high school senior can’t help but look back fondly on her long career in the budding discipline.
Brenne, a member of the Greater Kalamazoo Skating Association in Michigan, started in solo dance at age 9 and has competed at the Final each year since 2017. She’s won numerous medals, including gold and silver in the gold international shadow dance event in 2023 and 2024, respectively, with her best friend Khloe Felton.
“What I like most about solo dance is the community and being able to build upon my own technical ability,” Brenne said. “I also love how over the years solo dance has become a more competitive discipline, but at the same time I feel like there are so many different avenues that you can improve for your own technical and expressive performance to satisfy your journey in the sport.
“Everyone is so welcoming and even though they may be your competitors there is always someone there to cheer you on.”
Brenne attends Portage High School in Portage, Michigan, and is coached by her mother Jennifer Heurlin-Brenne and Jennifer Miller. Brenne shared the ice with her sister, Natalie, up until last season when she went off to Columbia College in Chicago to study cinematography.
Twenty-three members of the Greater Kalamazoo Skating Association have qualified for the Final, which will feature 224 athletes, representing 63 clubs and 282 starts.
Heading into this year’s marquee event, Brenne is excited to show the improvement she’s made in the technical area of her skating, as well as in her performance connection with the judges.
“In the last couple of years I have grown significantly in my technical skills,” Brenne said. “This past season is when everything started to become consistent with levels and scoring.
“This year I have been portraying the character Mary Poppins [for her senior free dance] and it has taken a bit to get out of my comfort zone to be able to raise my performance of the program to the next level. Naturally I’m not always trying to be the center of attention, so being able to break that and improve my comfort on the ice while performing has been the challenge.”
She hopes to experience a similar feeling with the Mary Poppins program as she did in 2023 in the junior free dance, performing to an Elvis medley.
“I loved that program because there were so many different styles of music that I was able to connect with,” Brenne said. “The idea behind the program was going through the decades of Elvis and the music was constantly building to the final song, ‘If I Can Dream,’ which was really fun.”
At this year’s Final, Brenne will perform her rhythm dance to a Ray Charles medley, her international pattern dance to songs which include “Witchcraft” by Frank Sinatra and her gold international solo dance with Felton to a Cha Cha Slide remix.
“Jordan has always had an amazing work ethic on and off the ice,” Miller said. “Her technical skating has always been her best asset. This past season she has been working on the development of her presence/expression on the ice. The maturity in her skating is just starting to crack through the surface. She has been working on stepping outside her comfort zone and it is starting to pay off.”
Away from the ice, Brenne is a straight-A student, plays the piano and clarinet. She’s a leader in her school’s marching band, in which she plays the snare in the drumline, and is a leader in the freshmen mentoring program. Brenne also loves to bake and paint and hangs out with Felton as much as she can.
The 17-year-old hopes to continue her skating career in college in synchronized skating or intercollegiate skating.