Janet Johnson Oral History, 2022

Interview with Janet Johnson conducted by Joan Brown. As the founder of the Ormao Dance Company, Janet Johnson has brought a longed for level of professional contemporary dance to Colorado Springs. Her work has brought noted choreographers to the company and given young, emerging choreographers fertile ground to launch exciting new works. As a choreographer, she has developed a wide repertoire of works with awards from the Pikes Peak Arts Council for Worn Thin (2012), Protest (2014) and PREPRESS (2017). After studying at the University of Wisconsin, she began dancing, teaching and choreographing in a variety of companies until founding Ormao Dance Company in 1990. Her belief in the inclusive nature of modern dance has created a company with depth of artistic expression, brilliance of technical skill, and given back to the Colorado Springs community a professional contemporary dance company they can call their own.