Jennifer Homans is a former professional dancer trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts, American Ballet Theatre, and the School of American Ballet. She performed with the Chicago Lyric Opera Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, and Pacific Northwest Ballet. Currently the dance critic for the New Republic, she has written for the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the New York Review of Books, and the Australian. She earned her B.A. at Columbia University and her Ph.D. in modern European history at New York University, where she is a Distinguished Scholar in Residence.