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 ...

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 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 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