Janet Mansfield Soares (Co-Director)

Janet Mansfield Soares, choreographer, teacher, and author of Martha Hill and the Making of American Dance (2009) and Louis Horst: Musician in a Dancers World (1994), was a member of the José Limón Company after graduation from Juilliard, and taught dance composition there from 1962 to 1986. She is professor of dance emerita, after serving as chair and artistic director at Barnard College, Columbia University. Founder and director of DANCE UPTOWN, a Manhattan dance concert series presenting professional choreographers from 1967 to 1990, directed her company DANCES/Janet Soares from 1974 to 1994, and created over 100 dances presented in concert. She has received numerous commissions and grants for her work from the National Endowment for the Humanities, New York State Council for the Arts, and the Westchester Council for the Arts.