image of Janet Pilla

Biographies: Janet Pilla

Janet Pilla (dancer) received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theater from Syracuse University and her Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Temple University. She toured nationally and internationally as a soloist of Ann Vachon/Dance Conduit (a company dedicated to the preservation of the Jose Limon Style) for 12 years. She was featured in performances in Czechoslovakia as a soloist and in England, Scotland and Taiwan as a company member of Terry Beck Troupe and Ed Groff/Jin Wen Yu Dancers.

She has performed with many Philadelphia choreographers and companies, including the Arden Theatre, Group Motion, Danceteller, SCRAP Performance Group, Trapezius Aerial Dance and Kun-Yang Lin. Janet has performed numerous reconstructions of the choreography of Jose Limon, Doris Humphrey, Anna Sokolow, Pauline Koner and others.

In addition to teaching Limon repertory at colleges, universities and professional companies on the east and west coast, Ms. Pilla has been an adjunct faculty member at Temple University, Drexel University and Bryn Mawr College and is currently on the adjunct faculty at Arcadia University. In addition to dancing with Jeanne Ruddy Dance, Ms. Pilla dances with Melanie Stewart Dance Theater and Dancefusion. She is the recipient of a 2008 Dance Advance grant for the research, reconstruction and performance of a 1963 Pauline Koner solo.