Jan Burkhard began her professional training at the School of American Ballet at the age of 9. She performed numerous ballets with New York City Ballet and was involved in the New York Choreographic Institute. Upon completion, she was also the recipient of the Mae L. Wien Award in 2005 for Most Outstanding Promise. In the fall of 2005, she became a member of Carolina Ballet’s corps de ballet. In 2009, she was nominated for the Princess Grace award. She rose through the ranks and was promoted to Principal in 2011. She has performed principal roles including Princess Aurora, Juliet, Firebird, Sugar Plum Fairy, and Giselle. Her repertoire also includes George Balanchine’s Tarantella, Valse Fantaisie, Apollo, Who Cares? and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux; August Bournonville’s La Sylphide and Flower Festival; Zalman Raffael’s Rhapsody and Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2; Robert Weiss’s A Classical Ballet, Intimate Voices, among others.