Jeanette Bertha Rothenstein was born on 10 March 1902 in Bradford, Yorkshire, the daughter of textile manufacturer, art collector and philanthropist Charles Lambert Rothenstein,[1][2][3] who changed his German surname in 1916 to make clear his allegiance to the British during World War I.
[5][6] Her uncles were artist William Rothenstein and stage designer Albert Rutherston.
[7] Rutherston toured with the Margaret Morris Dancers as a young woman, and danced on the London stage with fellow Bodenwieser student Trudl Dubsky.
The school closed when Dubsky had health issues, married, and moved away from England.
[10] Rutherston was writer and assistant to editor Philip J. S. Richardson, at the Dancing Times magazine, by 1934.