Janet Reed was an American ballerina and ballet mistress.
26 Facts About Janet Reed
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Janet Reed danced with San Francisco Ballet from 1937 to 1941 as leading ballerina.
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Janet Reed was born in Tolo, Oregon, on September 15,1916, and is the descent of pioneers from Oregon.
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Janet Reed's father, Charles Lindsay Reed, was an amateur dancer and rancher, and her mother, Esther Smith Reed, was a beautician.
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Janet Reed began studying dance with Eve Benson and Isadora Moldovan a few miles northwest in Medford, Oregon, as a girl.
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When in grade school, Janet Reed moved to Portland, and received professional training mainly from Willam Christensen.
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Janet Reed danced with the San Francisco Ballet as leading ballerina from 1937 to 1941, dancing Odette-Odile in its first full-length production of Swan Lake in 1940.
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Janet Reed toured the West and Midwestern United States, introducing ballets to new audiences.
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In 1942, Janet Reed relocated to New York City because she was keen to learn repertoire and moves.
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Janet Reed worked with choreographer Eugene Loring, who attracted her to New York City with a contract as Dance Players' principal dancer.
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The group disbanded not long after, and Janet Reed performed with pickup groups and teaching dance in a studio above Apollo Theater in Harlem to earn money.
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Janet Reed joined the Ballet Theatre in 1943, remaining with the company until 1947.
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Janet Reed worked with choreographers Agnes de Mille, George Balanchine, Michael Kidd, and Antony Tudor, touring North America.
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Janet Reed was cast as the Second Passerby in Jerome Robbins' maiden ballet Fancy Free in 1944.
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Janet Reed danced in the premiere of Interplay in 1945, and appeared in Kidd and Tudor's On Stage the following year and then in Robbins' Broadway play Look Ma, I'm Dancing in 1948.
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Janet Reed was cast by Balanchine in Neo-Classical ballets, such as Symphony in C and Serenade, and created the final act of Bourree Fantasque for her.
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Janet Reed had roles in Robbins' The Pied Piper, The Unicorn and The Manticore from John Butler, and Tally-Ho, Undertow, Dim Lustre, Waltz Academy, Pillar of Fire, Gala Performance, Graduation Ball, Mademoiselle Angot, Blue Beard, Pas de Quatre, Three Virgins and a Devil, Judgment of Paris, Ivesiana and Western Symphony.
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Janet Reed was made NYCB's ballet mistress 1959, helping dancers such as Allegra Kent, Patricia McBride, Edward Villella, and Pacific Northwest Ballet founders Francia Russell and Kent Stowell improve their technique.
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Janet Reed left the NYCB in 1964, retiring from performing dance to spend more time with her family.
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Janet Reed taught at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, and then founded a school in the Hudson Valley.
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Janet Reed was a United States Cultural Exchange Programs consultant recommending companies to represent American dance abroad.
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Janet Reed moved to Seattle in 1974 to assist in the founding of Pacific Northwest Dance and becoming its inaugural artistic director.
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Janet Reed stayed at the company for the next two years, before resigning while experiencing declining health from overworking.
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Janet Reed returned to teach at Pacific Northwest Dance not long after, remaining with the company until 1996.
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Janet Reed was married to antiques dealer and interior designer Branson Erskine from 1946 until his death in 1994.
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Janet Reed died in Seattle on February 28,2000, of a stroke she had had one week earlier.