Carolina Ballet's Jennifer Jansma, 22

She danced in 'Firebird,' 'Nutcracker,' 'Cinderella'

Jennifer Jansma had barely begun her career as a Carolina Ballet ensemble member. But already she had danced her way into the company's spotlight, with a pas de deux in "Swan Lake" and other prominent roles.

But a year ago, Jansma discovered she had head and throat cancer. And Wednesday evening, she died at age 22 in a Florida hospital, leaving Carolina Ballet dancers and staff forlorn as they prepared for Thursday's opening night of its run of "Cabaret."

"When anybody young passes on, it's a tragedy," artistic director Robert Weiss said Thursday. "When it's someone who has talent, it's a bigger tragedy because you never know what they would have accomplished. ... She had high hopes, and I had high hopes."

"Nutcracker" fans may remember Jansma as the Sugar Plum Doll, Ribbon Candy and Lead Mother. She was also a princess in "Firebird" and "Cinderella."

She was enrolled in a pre-law distance education program at Pennsylvania State University, said Elizabeth Parker, assistant to the artistic director. And she was an enthusiastic participant in Carolina Ballet's Dancers in Schools program, in which dancers go to public schools to teach and perform.

Before joining Carolina Ballet in 2004, Jansma studied at Miami City Ballet School and danced with the company's ensemble, according to her Carolina Ballet biography. A New Jersey native, she also performed in Pennsylvania Ballet's "Nutcracker."

Fellow dancer and friend Zali Raffael said Jansma thought she had a toothache at first. She wasn't a smoker, so she was surprised by her diagnosis.

After undergoing treatment at Memorial Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center in New York Jansma had tried to dance again last fall, Raffael said. But she was too weak.

"She didn't want to sit in a bed," he said. "She wanted to keep moving."

Jansma shunned painkillers until the final stage of her illness, Raffael said, because she would rather feel pain than be numb.

Raffael said he saw big changes in Jansma as her illness intensified. She grew more compassionate, he said. And she developed a mature perspective on life.

"It wasn't until she really faced that she could die that she became a different person," said Raffael, who last spoke with Jansma Monday. "She was a girl before it, and then she became a woman."

Jansma was well-liked by fellow dancers, Weiss said. Dancer Nicholas Hagelin co-wrote a song for her during her illness with composer Karl Moraski, who wrote the ballet's "Cinderella" score.

Weiss plans to dedicate the "Balanchine Favorites" program later this month to Jansma, who had danced in past Balanchine works.

Weiss said the youngest dancers in the ensemble, many of whom are around Jansma's age, are especially distraught.

"It's hard on everybody," he said. "But it's especially hard on young people, because when you're young, you don't think of anybody dying. I mean, you just don't think about it."