Jamie Marie Planko began her formal ballet training with Iacob lascu at the age of 11 in Bloomfield Hills, MI. She was a member of Dance Detroit and performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (Detroit, MI) in various productions such as The Nutcracker, in which she performed many roles, including the Sugar Plum Fairy. She also attended summer intensive programs with the National Ballet of Canada (Toronto, Canada), Chicago City Ballet (Chicago, IL) and many summers with the School of American Ballet (New York, NY). By the age of 14 she was awarded a full scholarship to study with the Kirov Ballet Academy (Washington D.C.). Jamie graduated from the academy as well as Bethesda Chevy-Chase Senior High School, with honors.
Jamie went on to perform and tour with the Kirov ballet (now the Mariinsky ballet, Saint Petersburg, Russia), performing soloist roles. She also performed professionally with companies such as Virginia Ballet Theater (Norfolk, VA), Washington Opera at the Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), Baltimore Opera Ballet (Baltimore, MD), Ballet Met (Columbus, OH), and Ballet Internationale (Indianapolis, IN).
Since returning to Michigan, Jamie has been teaching dancers in the Detroit metro area ballet, pointe, repertoire, character, historical court dance, contemporary,
and modern. She also enjoys working on artistic impressions and creating new choreographic works. Jamie has staged several full-length ballets such as The Nutcracker, Paquita, and La Bayadere. She also works with skaters, including the Junior World Champions of ice dance and Winter Olympians, instructing them in ballet, Pilates, conditioning, choreography, and artistic impression. She has also taught ballet to children with disabilities at the Friendship Circle (West Bloomfield, MI).