Janet Hamburg was born in 1951 in New York City. She graduated in 1973 with a B.S. in Social and Urban Systems Engineering from SUNY Buffalo, but soon returned to school for an M.A. in Dance at Mills College in Oakland, California (1976).

Hamburg joined the University of Kansas faculty in 1979, researching Laban Movement Analysis (in 1982 she became a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) in Laban Movement Analysis, receiving her certification from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies) to aid the elderly and children suffering from coordination and sensorimotor problems. She created two videos: "A Boy Learns to Skip and Jump" (1980s) and "Motivating Moves for People with Parkinson's" (2004). She also analyzed and applied Laban Movement Analysis to athletes, serving over the years as coach/trainer with the KU Athletics Department.

Hamburg was an internationally known movement analyst and lecturer. She taught at the Bill Evans Summer Institutes of Dance, was a guest teacher at the Juilliard School of Music, Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, and Sports Training Institute, and she was faculty for Laban Certification Programs in New Mexico and Berlin, Germany. She additionally provided workshops and classes in Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Mexico, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and throughout the United States.

For her activities, which included performance, choreography, composing, writing, community service, and teaching dance and movement studies, Hamburg received the Laban/Bartenieff Institute's Laban Award for Creative Achievement, the University of Kansas W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence, and the Phoenix Award for Exceptional Artistic Achievement from the Lawrence (Kansas) Arts Commission.

Janet Hamburg died in September 2010 in New York City, leaving her partner of 30 years, Lynn Bretz.