Jane Sherman (June 14, 1908 – March 16, 2010) was an American writer, performer, composer, and one-time dancer and member of the
Rockettes the famed in-house dance troupe of
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Nicknamed "The Showplac ...
.
[Obituary '']New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', March 20, 2010; page B
She was a former member and
authority
In the fields of sociology and political science, authority is the legitimate power of a person or group over other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' is practiced in ways such a judicial branch or an executive branch of government.''The N ...
of
Denishawn The Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, founded in 1915 by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in Los Angeles, California, helped many perfect their dancing talents and became the first dance academy in the United States to produce a professiona ...
, the eclectic company, founded by
Ruth St. Denis
Ruth St. Denis (born Ruth Denis; January 20, 1879 – July 21, 1968) was an American pioneer of modern dance, introducing eastern ideas into the art. She was the co-founder of the American Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts and the teac ...
and
Ted Shawn
Ted Shawn (born Edwin Myers Shawn; October 21, 1891 – January 9, 1972) was a male pioneer of American modern dance. He created the Denishawn School together with his wife Ruth St. Denis. After their separation he created the all-male company Te ...
in 1915. She performed with companies ranging from modern-dance groups to the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes.
Early life
Sherman was born in
Beloit, Wisconsin
Beloit is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 36,657 people.
History
Twelve men in Colebrook, New Hampshire, created the "New England Emigrating Company" in October 1836 and sent ...
on June 14, 1908 to Horace Humphrey Sherman, an advertising writer, and Florentine St. Clair, an opera singer. The family moved to New York City in 1921, where Jane began studying dancing, after she saw a
St. Denis program that included "
Brahms Waltz and
Liebesträume
' (German for ''Dreams of Love'') is a set of three solo piano works (S.541/R.211) by Franz Liszt, published in 1850. Originally the three ' were conceived as lieder after poems by Ludwig Uhland and Ferdinand Freiligrath. In 1850, two versions ap ...
", a solo that inspired her to study at the New York Denishawn School.
Career
Dancing
From 1927 to 1928, she joined the
Ziegfeld Follies
The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as ''The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air ...
and toured with the troupe, and later returned to
modern dance
Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...
as a member of the
Humphrey-Weidman Company in 1928. She also appeared in
Broadway revues and was a
Rockette
The Rockettes are an American precision dance company. Founded 1925 in St. Louis, they have, since , performed at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Until 2015, they also had a touring company. They are best known for starring in the Ra ...
in 1934 and 1935.
Editing
After her dance career ended, she became a fiction editor at
''Seventeen'' magazine in the 1940s.
Personal life
In 1940, Jane Sherman married Ned Lehac, a high school
Science Teacher
Science education is the teaching and learning of science to school children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education includes work in science content, science process (the scientific method), some ...
who was also a composer and lyricist for
revues
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own duri ...
, contributing material to 14 shows from 1930 to 1942. In the 1990s they moved together to the
Lillian Booth Actors Home
The Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund is an American assisted-living facility, in Englewood, New Jersey. It is operated by the Actors Fund, a nonprofit umbrella charitable organization that assists American entertainment and performi ...
, run by the
Actors Fund
The Entertainment Community Fund, formerly The Actors Fund, is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that supports performers and behind-the-scenes workers in performing arts and entertainment, helping more than 17,000 people directly each year. Ser ...
, where he died in 1999, aged 99.
In 2003, Jane began publishing poems, gathering them into little books, some of which commented on aging. In a poem from her self-published book "Songs of Senescence".
Death
On March 16, 2010, Sherman died at the age of 101.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherman, Jane
1908 births
2010 deaths
American female dancers
Dancers from Wisconsin
Dancers from New York (state)
American women writers
Writers from New York (state)
Writers from Wisconsin
Musicians from New York (state)
Musicians from Wisconsin
People from Beloit, Wisconsin
American editors
American centenarians
The Rockettes
Women centenarians