A woman on the move

PARKHURST – Diminutive dancer Janet Froman has brought the art of movement to Gallery on 6th, where she teaches a weekly dance class.

This reporter met with Froman to find out more about a life lived in the arts.

“I have always been passionate about dance. I went to an art school and did ballet in matric, and after studying dance, I freelanced overseas for a while,” she said.

Froman’s love of dance took her from Israel to Amsterdam, and from Canada to Hawaii, where she held a seminar at the University of Nations. She has also worked on films and in television, and as a dance critic and advertising copywriter.

“I want to encourage people to express their innermost emotions through dance, and I believe the arts do much to heal and uplift, and to instil in people a new belief in themselves,” she said.

Froman’s belief in the healing power of dance was strengthened when she visited Christian singer John Michael Talbot’s hermitage in Arkansas.

“I choreographed a dance to one of his songs, based on one of the psalms, and performing it was powerful and moving,” she said.

Her exploration of dance as a spiritual exercise continued through visits to various places of worship, locally and abroad.

Not content with that, Froman established the Royalty Trust for the Performing Arts in 2006.

“I established the trust as a gesture of thanks for my parents’ support. They gave me freedom and encouragement to follow my dreams, and I also recognise that my generation have to be the mothers of this generation, as so many young people come from broken homes,” she said.

The trust, funded mostly through corporate sponsorship, aims to expose underprivileged children to the performing arts.

“We collect the children, give them some background about that night’s theatre piece, give them a meal, watch the performance, and then engage with them about the show afterwards, before taking them home,” she said.

Froman said the one contribution she hoped to make was to be a part of positive change in people’s lives.

“All I can give is what I have; my love of music and dance that heals. It’s vital I impart this, as these children are my children too,” she said.

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