Email:

rejanes@iu.edu

Department:

Ballet

Rebecca Janes is visiting lecturer in music in ballet and co-director of the Jacobs Academy Ballet Program at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

Born in Urbana, Ohio, Janes began her training under the watchful eye of her mother, Cindy Carmazzi. Her early training also included Dayton Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, and Ballet Met.

Janes’ professional career began at the age of 17 with Dayton Ballet, where she performed for nine years as a principal dancer. In 1999, she was awarded the Josie Award, for the Most Outstanding Female Performer of the year. Before joining Charlotte Ballet as a principal dancer in 2002, she was a member of Ballet Met and a regular performer with the summer pickup company Chautauqua Festival Ballet.

During Janes’ career, she has been featured in numerous full-length ballets, including as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Odile and Odette in Swan Lake, Lucy in Dracula, Alice in Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella in Cinderella, Clara and Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, and Desdemona in Othello.

She has also had the joy of dancing repertoire ballets by George Balanchine, Anthony Tudor, Alonzo King, Alvin Ailey, Nacho Duato, Gerald Arpino, Marius Petipa, Septime Webre, Twyla Tharp, Dwight Rhoden, Mark Godden, Jean Pierre Bonnefoux, Sasha Janes, Stephen Mills, Lila York, and others. Some of her favorites were the lead in Rubies, Serenade, Dangerous Liaisons, Na Floresta, Map, and Nine Sinatra Songs.

Since retiring from the stage in 2012, Janes has enjoyed teaching, restaging ballets, and choreographing for the Chautauqua Dance Program, Jacobs Academy Ballet, Charlotte Ballet Academy, Dance Davidson, Open Door Studios, and Piedmont School of Music & Dance. She has also been certified in Romana Pilates and Progressing Contemporary Technique.

She lives in Bloomington with her husband and their three teenagers.