Jane Pirani - Principal

As the Principal of The Ann Roberts School of Dance, Jane Pirani leads a team of dedicated and talented teachers to deliver the very best dance instruction possible. Joining Jane in managing the school is her husband André.

Jane's mother, Ann Roberts founded the school in 1957, and Jane trained at the school prior to leaving Townsville to study fine art at University. She is the mother of two adult children; Emmanuel and Isabelle, both of whom have developed their own careers in performing arts.

After completing her degree in fine arts, Jane become a professional dancer in France, where she worked for two years with Maggi Sietsma, who went on to direct Expressions in Brisbane for 25 years. It was in France that she met her husband, André.

​After returning to Australia, Jane taught dancing at The Ann Roberts School of Dance and in 1986 founded Extensions - the youth link to Dance North. Jane was Artistic Director of Extensions for eleven years before taking on the role of Artistic Director of Dance North in 1997, a position she held for eight years. During this time, Jane took the professional dance company to a national and international stage with new works produced each year by herself and guest choreographers. She worked collaboratively with other choreographers, producing unique works including Luuli and performed with the Lardil dancers from Woomera Aboriginal Islander Corporation, Mornington Island. This production toured across the top of Australia, regional Queensland and capital cities over three years.

Jane has worked as a freelance choreographer before and after her time with Dance North. She has choreographed works for New Zealand School of Dance, Queensland Institute of Technology, Queensland Dance School of Excellence, Expressions, Queensland Ballet, Adelaide Centre for Performing Arts and Buzz Dance Theatre.

Her experience also includes work with young performers creating large scale productions that have toured Adelaide, Perth, Townsville, Brisbane, Xian City, China and Aberdeen, Scotland. In addition she has directed large scale community events such as VP50 where she worked with 650 school children to create a lantern extravaganza for the closing celebrations.

In 2007 Jane and André began Ulysses Dancers in memory of her mother who founded the school and loved butterflies. Ulysses have now produced 10 major works performed at Riverside Arts Centre. They toured to Scotland in 2015 for the International Youth Festival and again  in 2018, taking the production of 'Blue Worlds' to the international stage.

Jane has nurtured many students who have gone onto professional careers in the performing arts sector, and many who have held dance close to their heart after their time with the school. She is particularly proud of The Ann Roberts extended dance school family who are now returning with their children and their children's children to pass on the love of dance.