Janet Charleston (dancer)

Janet Charleston first danced with Christopher Williams in 2005 as Saint Lucy in Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins. A member of Douglas Dunn + Dancers since 1993, she continues to dance solo and group works with the company as well as serving as Rehearsal Director and Company Manager. She danced with the Lucinda Childs Dance Company for many years and performed in the 1992 world tour of Einstein on the Beach. Other artists Charleston has worked with include Chamecki/Lerner, Kota Yamazaki, David Parker, RoseAnne Spradlin, Stephen Koester, June Finch, Leslie Satin and Beverly Blossom. Invited to teach by Merce Cunningham at his studio in 2001, she now teaches for the Merce Cunningham Trust and is faculty for the Cunningham Teacher Training program. Other teaching engagements have included Sarah Lawrence College, Barnard College, SUNY Purchase, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, University of Illinois, the Joffrey Jazz and Contemporary Trainee Program, SEAD (Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, Austria), and El Centro Cultural Los Talleres (Mexico City). Charleston has also enjoyed teaching yoga and movement for children and the elderly. Her choreography has been presented at venues in New York City, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Arizona, and South America. A Fulbright Scholar in Santiago, Chile in 2008, she subsequently served as Peer Reviewer in Dance for the Fulbright organization. She holds an MFA from the University of Illinois, C-U.