Before Jackson's 60th birthday, one of her OG dancers reflects on the star's most game-changing choreography moments.

5/15/2026

Courtesy of Jenna Dewan

Jenna Dewan can pinpoint the exact moment she decided to become a Janet Jackson dancer. “I was probably 17, and I watched [the HBO special of] the Velvet Rope Tour,” the actor recalls today. “I was two inches from my TV, literally obsessed. I had that ‘a-ha’ moment of, ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to be a Janet dancer.’”

From that moment on, Dewan decided — as so many pop stars, from Britney Spears to Jennifer Lopez, did and would in the future — that Jackson would be her one-woman “vision board” for her career as a dancer-performer.…