Janet Mansfield Soares graduated from The Juilliard School before becoming a member of the José Limón Dance Company and holds a doctorate degree in interdisciplinary arts from Columbia University. She was the artistic director of Juilliard student dance touring programs while also serving on the dance faculty (teaching dance composition) from 1962–1987. She was an artist-in-residence for the Lincoln Center Institute in New York City schools and Young Audiences of New York developing and directing touring programs and dance residencies for New York City schools. She also served as resident choreographer for Lincoln Center productions by The Little Orchestra Society. On the faculty of Barnard College, Columbia University from 1963-2005 (where she was artistic director of DANCE UPTOWN from 1969-1990 and later chair of the Department of Dance), she is now Professor Emerita.

She is the author of Louis Horst: Musician in a Dancer’s World (Duke University Press, 1994), Martha Hill and the Making of American Dance (Wesleyan University Press, 2009), and The Westminster Arcade (The History Press, 2020).