Collins, Janet, 1917-2003

Janet Collins (March 2, 1917 – May 28, 2003) was an African American dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She performed on Broadway, in films, and on television. She was among the pioneers of Black ballet dancing, one of the few classically trained Black dancers of her generation.

Born Janet Fay Collins in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the age of four, she moved with her family to Los Angeles, California, where she received her first dance training at a Catholic community center. At various times, Collins studied ballet with Carmelita Maracci, Adolph Bolm, and Mia Slavenska, and trained in modern dance with Lester Horton. She also had fond memories of studying with Los Angeles dance teacher Dorothy Lyndall. Collins acquired performing experience while still a teenager, appearing in vaudeville as a member of an adagio dance team, "Three Shades of Brown" with Al Dixon and Graham Fain. She continued to face discrimination, however, as an aspiring ballerina. After the vaudeville act broke up, Collins sought advanced training in ballet, but was repeatedly turned away from ballet academies in Los Angeles. She persevered and tried the Arnold Tamon School of Ballet. Tamon's sister, Charlotte, who also was a teacher at the school, agreed to give Collins private lessons at a reduced rate. Collins made arrangements with a local tap dance instructor to use his studio for her ballet practice in exchange for her giving ballet lessons to some of his students. Collins began teaching dance to neighborhood children as well in order to help pay for her own classes. In 1934 or 1935, encouraged by her aunt, she auditioned with success for the prestigious Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, impressing ballet master Léonide Massine, but as she would have been required to paint her face and skin white in order to be able to perform in a limited repertory, she refused to join the company.

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