Jan Bolwell graduated with her DipPhEd in 1970, a BA in 1973, an MA at Birmingham University in 1975, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Dance from London University in 1979.
A noted dancer, choreographer and writer, she is the Director/Choreographer of the Crows Feet Dance Collective, and has been a highly successful playright, actor and producer for Handstand Productions in Wellington. She was awarded a Fulbright Cultural Award in 1992, a Chapman Tripp Professional Theatre Award in 1995 for Takitoru, and toured her solo play Here's Hilda throughout the country in 2006. Her recent dance work, How to be a Domestic Goddess, won the Wellington Fringe Festival Award for Best Dance Show in 2010, and she toured her highly successful play, Double Portrait: Finding Frances Hodgkins, throughout the country in 2009-2010.
Jan has been a member of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, and an inaugural Board Member of Dance Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as having significant roles with the Royal New Zealand Ballet, the New Zealand School of Dance, and the Ministry of Education. Jan has fashioned an immense contribution to dance and performance arts in New Zealand, and her choreographic and theatre work are ongoing.