Janie Taylor (born ) is an American ballet dancer, ''

répétiteur A (; from the French verb meaning 'to repeat, to go over, to learn, to rehearse') is an accompanist, tutor or coach of ballet dancers or opera singers. The feminine form is . Opera In opera, a is the person responsible for coaching singers ...

'' and costume designer. She joined

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's fir ...

in 1998, was promoted to principal dancer in 2005 and left in 2014. She then started designing costumes and staging works by

Justin Peck Justin Peck (born September 8, 1987) is an American choreographer, director, and dancer associated with New York City Ballet, of which he was appointed Resident Choreographer in July 2014, being the second person in the history of the instituti ...

and

Benjamin Millepied Benjamin Millepied (; born 10 June 1977) is a French dancer and choreographer, who has lived and worked in the United States since joining the New York City Ballet in 1995, where he became a soloist in 1998 and a principal in 2002. He has als ...

, before performing again as a member of the L.A. Dance Project.

Early life and training

Taylor was born in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, and started ballet at age 2. She moved to

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

with her family when she was 12. In 1995, Taylor entered the

School of American Ballet The School of American Ballet (SAB) is the associate school of the New York City Ballet, a ballet company based at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. The school trains students from the age of six, with professional voc ...

in New York, and dance lead roles at the school annual workshop during her last two years of training, before graduating in 1998. She received the Mae L. Wien Award the same year.

Dance career

In 1998, Taylor became an apprentice with the

, and was taken to the ''

corps de ballet In ballet, the ''corps de ballet'' (; French language, French for "body of the little dance") is the group of ballet dancer, dancers who are not principal dancers or Soloist (ballet), soloists. They are a permanent part of the ballet company and ...

'' a month later. The following year, at age 18, she danced the principal role in

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze;, Romanization of Georgian, : April 30, 1983) was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers ...

's ''

La Valse ''La valse'', ''poème chorégraphique pour orchestre'' (a choreographic poem for orchestra), is a work written by Maurice Ravel between February 1919 and 1920; it was first performed on 12 December 1920 in Paris. It was conceived as a ballet bu ...

''. She was promoted to soloist in 2001 and principal dancer in 2005. She had dance lead roles by Balanchine and

Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins (born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz; October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998) was an American dancer, choreographer, film director, theatre director and producer who worked in classical ballet, on stage, film, and television. Among his nu ...

, and had created roles for

and

. In March 2014, at age 33, Taylor and

Sébastien Marcovici Sébastien is a common French given name. It is a French form of the Latin name ''Sebastianus'' meaning "from Sebaste". Sebaste was a common placename in classical Antiquity, derived from the Greek word ''σεβαστος'', or ''sebastos'', mea ...

, her husband and a fellow principal dancer, both departed New York City Ballet following a performance of ''La Valse'' and Robbins' '' Afternoon of a Faun''. The program was not chosen by them though the two believed it was suitable for their farewell. She had stated she decided to leave because Marcovici was retiring from performing and the two agreed that it would be best for both of them. In 2014, after Taylor left New York City Ballet, she moved to Los Angeles as Marcovici joined Millepied's company, the L.A. Dance Project, as a ballet master. Later that year, the couple moved to Paris when Marcovici became a ballet master with the

Paris Opera Ballet The Paris Opera Ballet () is a French ballet company that is an integral part of the Paris Opera. It is the oldest national ballet company, and many European and international ballet companies can trace their origins to it. It is still regarded a ...

, at the time directed by Millepied. During the two years Taylor lived in Paris, she staged works by Peck and Millepied for ballet companies in Europe and the U.S at the choreographers' request. Taylor returned to Los Angeles after Millepied left the Paris Opera Ballet, and she joined the L.A. Dance Project as a dancer. She made her choreographic debut in 2019, in a piece titled ''Adagio in B Minor''.

Other ventures

Taylor had appeared in the 2000 film '' Center Stage'' as a background dancer, and served as a motion capture dancer for ''

Barbie of Swan Lake ''Barbie of Swan Lake'' is a 2003 animated fantasy film co-produced by Mainframe Entertainment and Mattel Entertainment, and distributed by Artisan Home Entertainment. Based on the Tchaikovsky ballet ''Swan Lake'', it is the third in the Barb ...

''. While in the New York City Ballet, she often wears leotards she made. In 2014, she designed the costumes for Peck's ''Everywhere We Go'', which was also her first job since she announced her departure from the New York City Ballet. She later designed the costumes for

Christopher Wheeldon Christopher Peter Wheeldon (born 22 March 1973) is an English international choreographer of contemporary ballet. Early life Born in Yeovil, Somerset, to an engineer and a physical therapist, Wheeldon began training to be a ballet dancer at th ...

's ''American Rhapsody'' and Joshua Beamish's ''Surface Properties'', which are danced by New York City Ballet and the

American Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant. Through 2019, it had an annual eight-week season at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center) in the spr ...

respectively.

Personal life

In 2004, Taylor was diagnosed with

immune thrombocytopenic purpura Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), also known as idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura or immune thrombocytopenia, is an autoimmune primary disorder of hemostasis characterized by a low platelet count in the absence of other causes. ITP often ...

, a rare autoimmune disorder, and had her spleen removed the following year. Taylor married fellow principal dancer

in 2012.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Janie Living people Entertainers from Houston 1980s births New York City Ballet principal dancers School of American Ballet alumni Mae L. Wien Award recipients American prima ballerinas 21st-century American ballet dancers Dancers from Texas American expatriates in France 21st-century American women Year of birth missing (living people)