Born in Washington, D.C., Jane received her formative ballet training at the Washington School of Ballet in Washington D.C., most notably with Mary Day, Alice Bralove, and Julio de Bittencourt. At 15, she was invited to perform with the Grand Theatre de Genève, in Geneva, Switzerland under the direction of Patricia Neary and George Balanchine.
She joined Ballet West, at the invitation of Bruce Marks, as a Ballet West Guild Scholarship Student in 1979, and rose to the rank of Principal Dancer under the direction of John Hart, C.B.E. in 1988.