Dancer, Author. A pioneer of modern dance, she was at her death probably the last remaining link to the earliest days of the art form. The child of an advertising writer father and an opera singer mother, she was initially raised in Beloit, Wisconsin, moved to New York City in her early teens, and began studying "Denishawn" at age 13. The company founded by and named for Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in 1915 was one of the earliest to break with older traditions; their youngest dancer, Jane toured Asia with the group in 1925 and 1926, keeping a diary as she went along. Returning to America, and needing a better paycheck, she joined the Ziegfeld Follies in 1927 and 1928, danced with the modernistic Humphrey-Weigman company, appeared in several Broadway productions, and was a Radio City Music Hall "Rockette" from 1935 to 1936. After leaving the stage in the 1940s, she worked as a fiction editor for "Seventeen" magazine; Jane published "Soaring", an account of her Denishawn days in 1976, the work winning a de la Torre Bueno Prize for dance writing and leading to "The Drama of Denishawn Dance" (1979) and the 1986 "Denishawn: The Enduring Influence". Jane taught modern dance to the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Vanaver Caravan, the 1990 Lyon Biennale Festival, Jacob's Pillow, and other groups. She lived her final years in the Englewood, New Jersey, Actor's Home, publishing some of her poetry. Married to composer Ned Lehac from 1940 until his 1999 death, she was sometimes billed as Jane Sherman-Lehac. Her personal papers are preserved in the New York Public Library.
Dancer, Author. A pioneer of modern dance, she was at her death probably the last remaining link to the earliest days of the art form. The child of an advertising writer father and an opera singer mother, she was initially raised in Beloit, Wisconsin, moved to New York City in her early teens, and began studying "Denishawn" at age 13. The company founded by and named for Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in 1915 was one of the earliest to break with older traditions; their youngest dancer, Jane toured Asia with the group in 1925 and 1926, keeping a diary as she went along. Returning to America, and needing a better paycheck, she joined the Ziegfeld Follies in 1927 and 1928, danced with the modernistic Humphrey-Weigman company, appeared in several Broadway productions, and was a Radio City Music Hall "Rockette" from 1935 to 1936. After leaving the stage in the 1940s, she worked as a fiction editor for "Seventeen" magazine; Jane published "Soaring", an account of her Denishawn days in 1976, the work winning a de la Torre Bueno Prize for dance writing and leading to "The Drama of Denishawn Dance" (1979) and the 1986 "Denishawn: The Enduring Influence". Jane taught modern dance to the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Vanaver Caravan, the 1990 Lyon Biennale Festival, Jacob's Pillow, and other groups. She lived her final years in the Englewood, New Jersey, Actor's Home, publishing some of her poetry. Married to composer Ned Lehac from 1940 until his 1999 death, she was sometimes billed as Jane Sherman-Lehac. Her personal papers are preserved in the New York Public Library.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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