The San Jose Ballet School was founded by Wana Williams Kalimos of the San Francisco Ballet. The school was directed by Wana Williams from 1949 to 1959. Then Francesca and Dimitri Romanoff of American Ballet Theatre co-directed the school until 1980. Janet Vertin assumed the role of director in 1980.
Janet Vertin, the current Director of the San Jose Ballet School, is the third generation of dance teachers in her family. The first was her great aunt, Marion Belle White, a graduate of the Imperial School in London, and director of her own school in San Francisco. The second family member was her mother, Helen Pabst Walsh, a graduate of College of Notre Dame Belmont, and now Janet Vertin, who is a graduate of Santa Clara University.
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