Jennie Frances Brenan

Jennie Frances Brenan (24 April 1877– 2 February 1964) was an Australian dancer and dancing teacher. She was encouraged to train as a dancer by J. C. Williamson and in time she opened a dancing school which supplied his dancers and after 1910 those required by the J. C. Williamson's company.

Biography Brennan was born in 1877 in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton, Victoria. Brenan's mother was Annie Bryce Cooper (born Livingston in Scotland in Edinburgh) and her father James Joseph Brenan was an estate agent born in Ireland. She was educated at a Catholic Ladies College ). However her important education was in dance. She was encouraged in her ambitions by the impresario J. C. Williamson who was a friend of the family. He encouraged her to train with Mary Weir who was one of his dancers and dancing teachers (Weir became Williamson's second wife in 1899 ). Her wide-ranging training continued with ballet taught by Rosalie Phillipini who was another of J.C.Williamson's dancing teachers.

In 1904 she opened a dance studio with her sister Margaret that was to supply dancers to Williamson's production for decades. The studio taught ballroom, ballet and fancy dancing. Brenan used the RAD's methods in Australia and in 1936 she became the RAD's first overseas member of its grand council and she became the chair of RAD's Australian Advisory Committee.

She died in 1964 and in the following year a Jennie Brenan named scholarship for dancing teachers was created by the local RAD.