She is one of the newest dancers of the Metropolitan Opera in the United States — a serious, accomplished dancer who performs ballet alongside other kinds of modern dance.
When the Metropolitan Opera company opened its work for the 1951–1952 season in New York, the name of Janet Collins was the most famous name among its beginning artists. She took part with Maria Karnilova, one of the dancers of the American Ballet Theatre and a member of the Metropolitan, in the company's first dance. She is also the first Negro dancer to win quick fame among the daughters of her race in American ballet, after the two American Negro dancers "Katherine Dunham" and "Pearl Primus" specialized in the old and the modern dance.
Miss Collins was chosen for the Metropolitan Opera
— the oldest opera house in the United States and the most famous opera in the world — after her meeting with Zachary Solov, the ballet director, at one of New York City's programs. While Solov was watching the work in progress in his free time, he gestured toward Miss Collins, saying "Aida." After the necessary audition, Solov and Rudolf Bing, director of the Metropolitan Opera, approved her appointment.
When Miss Collins appeared for the first time in New York in 1948 she was received with welcome, and she likewise met with dazzling success in the Pacific cities. Miss Collins has received a great deal of training and experience: after her mother gave her her first lessons in dancing, Janet studied under several ballet teachers in Los Angeles, California. Most of her teachers were of the line of the Italian schools, though she took some lessons under Adolph Bolm, the Russian dance teacher.
Miss Collins had the chance to appear in the festival "The Bite of Spring" in Hollywood after she was given a scholarship with the famous teacher Lester Horton. She also appeared in the film "Run Little Children," produced by the Negro director of the choral company, Hall Johnson. Janet has visited most of the Pacific islands with Katherine Dunham, and she has studied with the most famous ballet teachers, among them Hanya Holm, who trained her for the dancing in the successful musical comedy "Outside This World."
Miss Collins teaches modern dance one hour a week at the School of American Ballet, now that it has developed rapidly since the days when there was a general quarrel between it and ballet. She is a serious artist, creative in her work: she draws, designs her own costumes, and composes her own dances. She has found one of her means of expression by way of spiritual music — the rural Negro dance, distinguished by its lively, emotional spirit. To this music Miss Collins composes beautiful, inspired dances. And she dances with bare feet, in the modern manner.
Miss Collins has a slender ballet body, a fine head above a smooth neck, a delicate oval face shaded by black hair, and eyes that tell of pleasure in facing the quiet, gentle adventures that come her way.
The craft of dance is now so firmly set that a trained dancer with a broad gift for dancing can keep pace with any kind of it. Miss Collins has proved this in her "solo" dancing, whether with a partner or with a group. Janet appeared for the first time at the opening performance of the opera "Aida" in November 1951, and "Carmen" and other operas are important for her as well.