Janet Eilber(I)
- Actress
Janet Eilber's role in
Romantic Comedy (1983) follows
her auspicious motion picture debut as the girlfriend of Richard
Dreyfuss in MGM's "Whose LIfe Is It Anyway?" (1981)_, a powerful and
witty drama adapted from Brian Clark's long-running Broadway and London
stage hit. Although a newcomer to films, Janet has appeared on Broadway
in the starring role in Bob Fosse's "Dancin'" and in the short-lived
musical, "The Little Prince and the Aviator" opposite Michael York. Her
first big break in television came when she landed the title role in a
1982 ABC-TV movie,
This Is Kate Bennett... (1982)
in which she portrayed an investigative reporter who stumbles onto a
dangerous and explosive story. Her riveting performance was seen by
Walter Mirisch, who then cast her in
Romantic Comedy (1983). Eiber was
born in Detroit Michigan, USA on July 27, 1951. She attended high
school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan, before
moving to New York to enroll in Manhattan's famous Juilliard School. In
her junior year at Juilliard she joined the Martha Graham dance
company, becoming a soloist at the age of twenty-one. After graduation,
Janet became a regular member of the Martha Graham troupe and performed
many of the roles originated by Martha Graham as well as parts
especially choreographed for her by Ms. Graham. She danced opposite
Rudolf Nureyev in "The Scarlet Letter" and "Lucifer" and was a soloist
at the White House when President
Jimmy Carter presented the Medal of
Freedom to Martha Graham. After touring in the U.S., Europe and Asia
with the Graham company in 1978, where she met "everyone from the Queen
Mother to the King of Bangkok," Eilber joined the American Dance
Machine under the direction of Lee Theodore. With this company, she was
featured in "Steps in Time," a recreation of the classic duets in dance
history, which reprised such famous numbers as "Won't You Charleston
With Me" from "The Boy Friend," "Express Yourself" from "Flora the Red
Menace," "You Can Dance With Any Girl at All" from "No No Nanette,"
"Little Me" from "I Got Your Number" and "Me and My Gal," as originally
choreographed by Carol Haney. Janet Eilber
has been the Artistic Director of the Martha Graham Center of
Contemporary Dance since 2005. Her direction has focused on creating
new forms of audience access to the Graham masterworks. Her direction
has focused on creating new forms of audience access to the Graham
masterworks. These initiatives include designing contextual
programming, educational and community partnerships, use of new media,
commissions and creative events such as the "Lamentation Variations"
and "Prelude and Revolt." She has also remixed Graham choreography and
created new staging in the Graham style for theater/dance productions
of "The Bacchae" and "Prometheus Bound." She soloed at the White House,
was partnered by Rudolf Nureyev, starred
in three segments of "Dance in America," and has since taught, lectured
and directed Graham ballets internationally. Eilber has performed in
films, on television and on Broadway directed by such greats as Agnes
deMille and Bob Fosse and has received four Lester Horton Awards for
her reconstruction and performance of seminal American modern dance.
She has served as Director of Arts Education for the Dana Foundation,
guiding the Foundation's support for Teaching Artist training and
contributing regularly to its arts education publications. Eilber is a
Trustee Emeritus of Interlochen Center for the Arts. She is married to
screenwriter/director John Warren, with whom she has two daughters,
Madeline and Eva.