Janie Taylor

Janie Taylor (born ) is an American ballet dancer, répétiteur and costume designer. She joined New York City Ballet in 1998, was promoted to principal dancer in 2005 and left in 2014. She then started designing costumes and staging works by Justin Peck and Benjamin Millepied, before performing again as a member of the L.A. Dance Project.

Early life and training Taylor was born in Houston, and started ballet at age 2. She moved to New Orleans with her family when she was 12. In 1995, Taylor entered the School of American Ballet in New York, and dance lead roles at the school annual workshop during her last two years of training, before graduating in 1998. She received the Mae L. Wien Award the same year.

Dance career In 1998, Taylor became an apprentice with the New York City Ballet, and was taken to the corps de ballet a month later. The following year, at age 18, she danced the principal role in George Balanchine's La Valse.

In March 2014, at age 33, Taylor and Sébastien Marcovici, her husband and a fellow principal dancer, both departed New York City Ballet following a performance of La Valse and Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun.

In 2014, after Taylor left New York City Ballet, she moved to Los Angeles as Marcovici joined Millepied's company, the L.A. Dance Project, as a ballet master.

Other ventures Taylor had appeared in the 2000 film Center Stage as a background dancer, and served as a motion capture dancer for Barbie of Swan Lake.

While in the New York City Ballet, she often wears leotards she made. In 2014, she designed the costumes for Peck's Everywhere We Go, which was also her first job since she announced her departure from the New York City Ballet. She later designed the costumes for Christopher Wheeldon's American Rhapsody and Joshua Beamish's Surface Properties, which are danced by New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre respectively.

Personal life In 2004, Taylor was diagnosed with immune thrombocytopenic purpura, a rare autoimmune disorder, and had her spleen removed the following year.

Taylor married fellow principal dancer Sébastien Marcovici in 2012.