Dancers Lost
Each year the dance community loses beloved dancers. Celebrate their lives, legacies, and remember the joy they brought audiences around the world.
Dancers Lost in 2023
JANUARY
4 - Arthur Duncan (born September 25, 1925) is best known as a gifted tap dancer who performed on the Betty White TV variety show, with Bob Hope’s USO tours in the 1950s, and on the Lawrence Welk TV show from 1964-1982.
13 - Modern dancer, choreographer and educator Rena Gluck (born January 14, 1933) helped found the Batsheva modern dance company in Israel, the first company allowed to perform the works of Martha Graham (1894-1991) outside of the Graham company.
15 - Jean Veloz (born March 1, 1924) is best known as a lindy hop dancer who performed in several B movies in the 1940s and performed with Latin-style ballroom dancer Frank Veloz (1906-1981) in the 1960s, whom she married.
16 - Lupe Serrano (born December 7, 1930) is known as the first Latina ballerina to be hired by American Ballet Theatre in 1953, performing in pieces by George Balanchine (1904-1983) and Jerome Robbins (1918-1998), until retiring in 1974.
17 - Gino Landi (born August 2, 1933) was one of the most famous and prolific choreographers for television, theatre, and television in Italy during the 20th century.
20 - Olivia Geerolf (born 1950) was a Belgian choreographer who founded the Bruge Ballet School in 1970 and choreographed the Procession of the Holy Blood, a UNESCO protected celebration, from 1971-2015.
21 - Ming Wei Ma - was the beloved owner/teacher at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio. He was killed in the Monterey Park mass shooting during a celebration of the Lunar New Year. Dance enthusiasts Nancy Liu and My Nhan also died in the attack.
26 - Attilio Labis (born September 5, 1936) was a French ballet dancer, teacher, and choreographer who performed with the Paris Opera from 1952-1972 and went on to teach the company and encourage the performance of a pirouette turn with the toe lifted to the knee versus the older style position at the ankle.
FEBRUARY
17 - Michaël Denard (born November 5, 1944) is best known for dancing with the Paris Opera ballet from 1966-1989, notably in the works of Pierre Lacotte (1932-2023) - see his entry, below in April.
17 - Ballerina Elissa Minet Fuchs (born March 10, 1919) danced with the Metropolitan Opera ballet company from 1938-1950, founded the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre in the 1950s and worked with the Greensboro Ballet in North Carolina.
20 - Actor/dancer Bela Bose (born January 1, 1943?) initially began dancing in films to help out her family financially, appearing in over 30 films during her career, including Shikar (1968) and Jai Santoshi Maa (1975).
22 - Kabuki dancer Fujima Kansuma (aka Sumako Hamaguchi, born May 9, 1918) relocated to Japan from San Francisco in 1934 to study. Upon being released from the Japanese Internment camps following WWII, she opened a studio in Los Angeles and worked on projects with Walt Disney.
22 - Indian dancer Kanak Rele (born June 11, 1937) is best known for championing the classical technique of Mohiniyattam, for creating a notation system for the dance, and for writing several books on the subject of dance.
24 - Norwegian dancer and choreographer Edith Roger (born May 29, 1922) performed with Norwegian National Opera and Ballet.
MARCH
6 - Masum Babul (born December 31, 1962) was a Bangladeshi film dance director and choreographer with a great many credits to his name. He won the Bangladesh National Film award for choreography for the films Dola (1993) and Ki Jadu Karila (2008).
7 - Ballerina Lynn Seymour (born March 8, 1939) danced for the Royal Ballet between 1958 and 1981, often in works by Kenneth MacMillan (1929-1992), and she also guested at many other companies and was often paired with Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993).
15 - Modern dancer Stuart Hodes (born November 27, 1924) performed with Martha Graham (1894-1991) in the 1940s and 1950s, following his service in WWII, and you can see him in the filmed version of Appalachian Spring.
29 - Contemporary dancer/choreographer Jennifer Muller (born October 16, 1944) created dances for Louis Falco (1942-1993) and founded The Works company in 1974, touring internationally, teaching, and creating community amongst her students and other choreographers.
30 - Royal Academy of Dance-trained ballet dancer Martin Rubinstein (born October 25, 1924) performed with the Borovansky Ballet (later The Australian Ballet) and became an RAD examiner and respected dance figure in Australia.
APRIL
2 - Burlesque dancer Satin Doll, aka Toni Elling, (born May 13, 1928) got into the field in 1960 while working an unsatisfactory job, and danced until retiring in 1974. She believed in following the ‘tease’ in strip tease, preferring to preserve the mystery.
7 - Indian dancer Kalamandalam Devaki (born November 25, 1946) became the first female practitioner of Ottan Thullal, a recite-and-dance form mostly performed by men, in 1960, later teaching the form as a recognized maestro.
9 - Contemporary dancer Valda Setterfield (born September 17, 1934) is best known for performing with Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) and for dancing for and collaborating with her husband and fellow dancer/choreographer David Gordon (1961-2022)
10 - French ballet dancer and choreographer Pierre Lacotte (born April 4, 1932) is best known for researching and restaging 19th century ballets for the Paris Opera Ballet and other companies, and for helping fellow dancer Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993) defect from the Soviet Union in 1961.
18 - Ballet dancer and singer Väino Aren (born August 11, 1933) danced with the Estonian Theatre from 1950-1971, and continued as a singer from 1971-1978.
19 - Singer/actor/dancer Moonbin (born January 26, 1998) was part of the Korean boy band Astro and had recently begun a sub-group Moonbin and Sanha and was part of the cast of Saturday Night Live Korea.
22 - Champion ballroom dancer Len Goodman (born April 25, 1944) is best known as a judge on the TV shows Dancing with the Stars (2005-2022) and Strictly Come Dancing (from 2004-2016).
26 - Dee Dee Wood (born June 7, 1927) is best known for choreographing the movies Mary Poppins (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968).
MAY
17 - Taiwanese choreographer and dance researcher Liu Feng-shueh (born 1925) was the first person to earn a doctorate in dance and she spent her career staging dances and researching Taiwanese indigenous dances, dance during the Tang Dynasty, and modern dance.
19 - Slovenian ethnochoreologist Mirko Ramovš (born October 5, 1935) directed the France Marolt Student Folkdance Group and lectured on folk dance at the University of Ljublijana.
21 - Choreographer Dougie Squires (born February 16, 1932) created work for BBC - TV shows in the UK beginning in the 1950s, heading groups including The Young Generation, who danced on The Rolf Harris Show, Show of the Week, and the International Cabaret.
JUNE
8 - Dancer Kerri-Anne Donaldson (born 1985?) joined the cast of the Irish Dancing with the Stars in 2019 after dancing with the group Kings and Queens, which appeared on Britain’s Got Talent in 2014.
11- Egyptian ballerina Magda Saleh (born April 2, 1944) studied dance in Moscow and was a founding member of the Cairo Opera ballet company and moved between Egypt and the United States during her career.
14 - Editor and balletomane Robert Gottlieb (born April 29, 1931) published a great many dance books through the Knopf company, wrote dance criticism for The New York Observer, served on the Board of the NYCB, and wrote a biography of George Balanchine (1904-1983).
27 - Known mostly as a singer, Carmen Sevilla (born October 16, 1930) danced from an early age and appeared in both Spanish and American movies during the Golden Age of Hollywood, including Vengeance (1958), the first Spanish film to be nominated for the Foreign Film Academy Award.
28 - Wheelchair dancer Paula Moulton (born 1971?) appeared on the TV show Britain’s Got Talent in 2012 paired with her dance partner Gary Lyness, and co-founded the group Strictly Wheels in 2016 to provide classes and bring awareness to wheelchair dancing.
JULY
4 - Ballet dancer Chris McKennon (born 1957?) was a beloved teacher who relocated to Miami in the 1980s after performing with Dance Theatre of Harlem, ABT, NYCB, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.
6 - Ballerina Regina Plokstis (born February 25, 1939) performed with Ballet Rambert before returning to Australia to dance with the last iteration of the Borovansky Ballet and opening a studio near Melbourne.
14 - Nishikawa Senzo (born 1928?) was a Japanese traditional Nihon Buyo dancer, who began performing at the age of 5 and founded the Nihon Buyo Foundation to support the preservation of the dance form in 1990.
23 - Original A Chorus Line dancer Pamela Blair (born December 5, 1949) was the first to play the role of Val, a character who resorted to plastic surgery enhancements to get Broadway dance jobs. She also appeared in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and on several soap operas, TV shows, and in the movie Annie (1982).
24 - Dancer Ethel Bruneau (born 1936?) was called the tap dancing queen of Montreal, performing in all the local nightclubs and spent her later years teaching students at her studio.
29 - Canadian dancer Danny Grossman (born September 13, 1942) performed with Paul Taylor (1930-2018) for a decade before founding his own company and producing politically-tinged dance works.
29 - Vogue dancer and choreographer O'Shae Sibley (born September 1, 1994) studied at Philadanco and danced during the Black Lives Matter protests, was killed while dancing at a gas station.
31 - Argentinian dancer/choreographer María Fux (born January 2, 1922) developed a dance therapy training system and wrote multiple books on the subject.
AUGUST
1 - Dancer/choreographer Annabelle Gamson (born August 6, 1928) danced on Broadway and in the works of both modern and ballet choreographers, but she is perhaps best known for her work studying, recreating, and performing the works of Isadora Duncan (1877-1927), dispelling the myth that Duncan’s dances were entirely improvised.
7? - DJ Casper (Willie Perry, Jr., born May 31, 1965) created the Cha Cha Slide song and accompanying dance in the early 2000. The line dance has become a staple at weddings, parties, and other events.
11 - Modern dancer/choreographer Gus Solomons Jr. (born August 27, 1938) began dancing in college, while still an Architecture student at MIT, and performed with Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) before starting his own company in 1972 and later becoming a published dance critic.
16 - South African ballet dancer Johaar Mosaval (born January 28, 1928) escaped Apartheid practices in his home country to dance with the Royal Ballet from 1951-1975, returning to Cape Town afterwards to support the cause for integration in the arts..
23 - Myra Jean Woodruff (Aug 11, 1958) danced with the Longview Ballet as a teenager and with Martha Graham for 20+ years before teaching at the Bejart School in Switzerland and at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
SEPTEMBER
1 - Jack Pointer Mackenzie (born 1988?) was a back-up dancer for the UK boy band JLS from 2009-2021 and also worked with Justin Bieber and Katy Perry.
9 - Danish dance historian and critic Erik Aschengreen (born August 31, 1935) wrote for the Berlingske Tidende newspaper for more than 40 years, published multiple books, and lectured on Danish ballet history in Denmark and the United States.
14 - Kenneth Tillson (born January 31, 1930) danced with Ballet Rambert and appeared on TV and in movies, including Fire Down Below (1957), and is best known for joining the Borovansky Ballet from 1960 onwards (later The Australian Ballet) into the early 1980s.
17 - French dancer, choreographer, and musician Catherine May Atlani (born May 12, 1946) founded La Ballet de la Cité in 1967 and toured in France until settling in Paris to co-direct Café de la Danse in 1985.
20 - Bangladeshi dancer and television actress Zeenat Barkatullah (born 1951?) appeared in over 80 TV productions and was named one of the directors of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in 2002.
21- Indian Bharatanatyam dancer Saroja Vaidyanathan (born September 19, 1937) gave up performing publicly after marriage and focused instead on teaching children, choreographing works, and writing books on Bharatanatyam.
29 - Minimalist choreographer Rudy Perez (born November 24, 1929) was part of the Judson Dance Theatre group in the 1960s and continued creating multidisciplinary works featuring pedestrian movement in Los Angeles after being hired by the University of California and forming his own company.
29 - Choreographer/teacher Yacov Sharir (born August 22, 1940) danced with Batsheva in Israel before relocating to Austin and teaching at the University of Texas while leading the Sharir Dance Company (aka Sharir + Bustamante Danceworks) from 1982-2007.
OCTOBER
2 - Indian dancer Satyaram Reang (born 1943) is best known for his contribution to the preservation of Hojagiri Dance, performed by the Tripuri people in northeastern India.
2 - Black ballerina Delores Browne (born ?) was trained during segregation in the 1950s and performed with black ballet companies and with black contemporary dance artists, but was never hired by white dance companies. She dedicated herself to teaching and commuted between the Ailey School in NYC and in Philadelphia for over 40 years.
2 - Tap dancer Barbara Phillips (born February 21, 1955) was the creative force behind the Third Coast Rhythm Project in San Antonio, Texas.
4 - Heart Uy (born October 29, 2004) is best known for dancing with the Filipino hip hop group Upeepz since the age of 10 and appeared on the World of Dance TV show.
10 - Academic Graham McFee (born 1951) specialized in the areas of aesthetics, dance, and dance education at the University of Brighton and California State University, Fullerton, authoring many books and numerous papers.
11- Australian choreographer Ian Spink (born October 8, 1947) danced with the Australian Ballet and Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) before relocating to London and founding Second Stride in 1982 with Siobhan Davies (1950-) and Richard Alston (1948-).
12 - Kevin Wynn (born May 6, 1956) danced with José Limón (1908-1972) and Dianne McIntyre (1946-) and taught contemporary dance at the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase college for over 30 years, inspiring other dance artists such as choreographer Kyle Abraham (1977-) and vogue artist Jason Rodriguez (1990-).
13 - Spanish classical dancer Sonia del Rio (born January 29, 1940) performed with luminaries Pilar Lopez (1912-2008) and Jose Greco (1918-2000) and spent many years splitting her time between Spain, France, and Quebec as a choreographer.
14 - Arthur Leeth (born February 5, 1953) - danced for Boston Ballet from 1976-1989 before taking on the role of the company’s ballet master and music librarian, later teaching at the Dance Complex in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
20 - Dance critic and historian Jack Anderson (born June 15, 1935) wrote many books on dance and reviewed performances for the New York Times and Dance Magazine beginning in the late 1950s.
23 - Finnish dance teacher Aira Samulin (born September 27, 1927) is best known for founding a fashion dance school called Rhythmical Mannequins in the 1960s.
26 - New Zealand ballet dancer Jon Trimmer (born September 18, 1939) performed with the New Zealand Ballet Company in the 1950s and later with the Royal Danish Ballet and Australian Ballet companies, returning later to help revive the Royal New Zealand Ballet in the 1970s.
30? - Polish dancer Cezary Olszewski (born 1981?) is best known for performing on the TV show Dancing with the Stars (UK) from 2008-2010, winning series 7 with hs partner Magdalena Walach.
NOVEMBER
11 - Spanish Romani flamenco dancer/singer Angelita Vargas (born 1946) began dancing at the age of three and performed all over the globe, particularly at the Flamenco Puro show (which was featured on Broadway) and she presented he own group at the 1998 Expo in Lisbon.
12 - British dancer and activist Joan Jara (born July 20, 1927) danced for the Chilean National Ballet and dedicated the remainder of her career to furthering the memory of her husband, Victor Jara, a theatre director and folklorist/musician who was killed during the 1973 coup.
DECEMBER
2 - Childhood polio patient and beloved teacher Janet Panetta (born December 12, 1948) was best known for teaching ballet to contemporary dancers and for working with Pina Bausch’s Tanztheatre Wuppertal company for two decades.
18 - Russian dancer Dmitriy Krasilov, aka Pukhlyash (born June 22, 1994) is best known for dancing in the music video, UNO, for the group Little Big, representing Russia at the Eurovision Contest of 2020, which was canceled due to the pandemic.
18 - Ballet dancer/choreographer Valery Lagunov (born June 2, 1942) performed with the Bolshoi Ballet from 1962-1983, afterwards teaching and serving as a repetiteur at the Bolshoi school.
19 - French dancer/choreographer and musician Philippe Oyhamburu (born 1921) was a proponent of Basque dance culture and he founded the performing group Etorki.
29 - Tap dancer Maurice Hines (born December 13, 1943) was the older brother of tap dancer Gregory Hines (1946-2003) and for a while they performed as a duo. He later appeared in many Broadway shows, including Eubie! (1978) and Sophisticated Ladies (1981).
Dancers Lost in 2022
JANUARY
2 - Shakira Gatlin
4 - Edward Glancy
6 - Gloria Piedimonte
20 - Jerry Bywaters Cochran
23 - Lily Douglas
25 - Donald Mahler
25 - Milena Salvini
FEBRUARY
3 - Stephanie Selby
10 - Henry Danton
12 - Bhanumati Rao
14 - Ingeborg Heuser
22 - Donny Davis
26 - Santha Bhaskar
MARCH
5 - Jacqueline Floyd
9 - Annerose Baier
15 - Nina Novak
16 - Margaret M. McGowan
17 - Artyom Datsishin
18 - Jaap Flier
18 - Nan Melville
23 - Russell Kerr
23 - Auti Angel
APRIL
2 - Henrich Mayorov
3 - Johnny Lum Ho
3 - Betty Rowland
5 - Chris Owens
21 - Iván Markó
MAY
8 - Sunny Low
16 - Carol Ann Peters
24 - Martha Myers
JUNE
12 - Hsuek-Tung Chen
JULY
2 - Betty Phares
2 - Pop’in Taco
6 - Jacqueline Challet-Haas
18 - Françoise Riopelle
29 - Darius Barnes
22 - Naomi S. Mindlin
27 - Robert LuPone
SEPTEMBER
5 - Shirley McKechnie
6 - Tina Ramirez
7 - Ramchandra Manjhi
8 - LaDeva Davis
8 - Terry Creach
10? - Wally Safford
12 - Oleksandr Shapoval
15 - Françoise Dupuy
15 - Jeanne Renaud
24 - Rita Gardner
24 - Kitten Natividad
27 - Boris Moiseyev
30 - Kevin Locke
OCTOBER
11 - Jaroslav Čejka
11 - Beryl Goldwyn
21 - Chet Walker
NOVEMBER
11 - Angela Lansbury
13 - Golam Mostafa Khan
20 - Joyce Bryant
25 - Alice Teirstein
28 Susan Kikuchi
DECEMBER
13 - Stephen "tWitch" Boss
18 - Stephanie Bissonnette
Dancers Lost in 2021
January
10 — Ballerina Charlene Gehm MacDougal (born December 14, 1951) — danced lead roles with the Joffrey Ballet from 1976–1991, and on Broadway in a revival of West Side Story and the original Phantom of the Opera (1988).
13 — American-born contemporary dance choreographer Robert Cohan (born March 27, 1925) founded professional studio, The Place, in London, and directed the London Contemporary Dance Theatre for 20 years, beginning in 1969.
15 — North Carolina-based ballroom dance instructor and founder of Roland’s Dance Studio, Roland Bersch (born 1930), died from COVID.
16 — Tango dancer Juan Carlos Copes (born May 31, 1931) partnered with Maria Nieves (1934-) and appeared in Tango Argentino (1985) on Broadway, and died from COVID.
18 — Former Captain of the Florida Atlantic University dance team, Victoria Strauss (born 1998?).
21 — Broadway choreographer Bob Avian (born December 26, 1937) co-created the dances for shows such as A Chorus Line (1975), staged Miss Saigon (1991) and produced other hits such as Dreamgirls (1981).
22 — Norwegian ballet dancer/choreographer Jorunn Kirkenær (born May 4, 1926) performed in the 1940s and 1950s and founded a school in 1966.
31 — Canadian dancer/choreographer Pierre-Paul Savoie (born January 14, 1955) founded PPS Danse in Montreal.
February
4 — Indian Kathakali dancer Mathoor Govindan Kutty (born October 5, 1940) specialized in portraying female characters for six decades.
9 — Brazilian dancer/actress Marilena Ansaldi (born November 4, 1934) was a former ballerina and pioneer of dance theatre in South America and appeared in several films in Brazil.
10 — Irish-born contemporary dancer Emma O’Kane (born circa 1977) was a member of CoisCéim Dance Theatre in Dublin for two decades.
24 — Balinese dancer and doctor Bulantrisna Djelantik (born September 8, 1947) specialized in traditional Legong dance and was also an ENT physician and lecturer at Padjadjaran University in West Java.
25 — Dancer/choreographer Babachu Spriggs (born Robert Spriggs, circa 1939) was known in Columbus, OH as ‘dancing guy’ and attended ComFest at the Goodale Park every year.
26 — Choreographer Jimmy Gamonet de los Heros (born March 6, 1957) was the resident choreographer with the Miami City Ballet from 1985–2000 and ran Ballet Gamonet in Miami for five years before returning to his native Peru to choreograph for the National Ballet of Peru. Gamonet died of COVID.
27 — Spanish flamenco dancer Teresa Torkanowsky (born August 9, 1926) toured with Carmen Amaya (1913–1963) in the 1940s and Luis Olivares (d. 2020) as well as with her own company. Torkanowsky was instrumental in bringing flamenco to New Orleans and founding the dance program at the University of Maine.
March
5 — Ballet dancer Patrick Dupond (born March 14, 1959) performed with the Paris Opera Ballet and later directed the company.
British ice dancer and coach Janet Sawbridge (born 1947) won medals in the World Figure Skating Championships in the 1960s and famously paired Torvill and Dean for the 1984 Olympic Games.
12 — Alena Přetáková (born May 28, 1936) was a Czechoslovakian pedagogue, ethnographer, dancer and choreographer
17 — Contemporary experimental dancer/teacher Manfred Fischbeck co-founded and co-directed Group Motion Multimedia Dance Theatre in Philadelphia, innovating and inspiring dancers since 1970.
20 — Russian choreographer/dancer Vladimir Kirsanov (born August 13, 1947) is best known for choreographing the Academy Award-winning film Burnt by the Sun (1994). He died of COVID.
23 — Hungarian choreographer and ballet teacher Ágnes Roboz (June 18, 1926) led folk dance groups in the 1950s and was a founding teacher at the Hungarian Dance Academy before joining the Royal Ballet teaching staff.
April
2 — Ballet dancer and recent University of Iowa graduate, Senéad Short (born circa 1996) was on a Fulbright Assistantship Award in Taiwan, teaching English and dance.
7 — Not much information is available about Ukrainian dancer/choreographer Remziye Tarsinova (born December 9, 1926), but she was also a ballet master.
8 — Spanish singer and dancer Sagrario Aranburu Olasagarre (17 April 1930–8 April 2021) is best known for performing with a group called Duguna.
Brazilian dancer/choreographer Ismael Ivo (born January 17, 1955) danced with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and directed the Biennale Danza in Venice — he died of COVID.
Legendary twist and vogue dancer Boogie Revlon Makaveli (born circa 1985) founded the House of Makaveli.
10 — Broadway dancer Susanne Carmina Cansino (born April 21, 1930) and first cousin to movie musical star Rita Hayworth (1918–1987), was the last surviving member of the Dancing Cansinos.
16 — Choreographer Liam Scarlett (born April 8, 1986) was a artist in residence with the Royal Ballet and created works for dance companies such as Ballet Black, BalletBoyz, English National Ballet, and the New Zealand Ballet, among many others.
20 — Burlesque performer Tempest Storm (born February 29, 1928) appeared in several movies in the 1950s and danced for many years at the El Rey Theatre in Oakland, CA, retiring in 1995 at the age of 67.
21 — Soviet, and Russian ice dancer Irina Moiseeva (born February 7, 1925) competed in the Olympics in the 1970s and early 1980s.
24 — Spanish flamenco dancer Carmen Salazar Vargas, known as La Camboria (born May 4, 1931) toured Europe and befriended writer Agatha Christie. Vargas died from COVID.
26 — Ballet patron Nancy Lassalle (born November 10, 1927) helped George Balanchine (1904–1983) to found the Ballet Society in 1946, serving as President. She also served as a founding board member for the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet.
29 — Austrian ballet dancer Edeltraud Brexner (born June 12, 1927) joined the Vienna State Opera Ballet in 1944 and later served on the faculty.
May
2 — Ballet dancer Jacques D’Amboise (born July 28, 1934) performed with the NYCB beginning in 1949, appeared in movie musicals such as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) and founded the National Dance Institute in 1976, an organization dedicated to teaching dance to underserved children.
5 — Folk dancer Ron Smedley (born June 22, 1928) directed London Folk, a successful dance company that performed in local and international festivals, he taught folk dance at the Royal Ballet School and was a TV producer at the BBC.
6 — Dancer Debora Chase-Hicks (born December 23, 1957) performed with both Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and was the rehearsal director at Philadanco for the remainder of her career. She was instrumental in preserving some of the work of choreographer Talley Beatty (1918–1995).
7 — Ballerina NaTalia Johnson (born November 20, 1983) danced with Dance Theatre of Harlem, Debbie Allen (1950-) and many other entertainers, retiring in 2013 to found the Natalia Johnson Conservatory of Ballet in Sacramento, CA.
12 — Ballet teacher Bella Malinka Dall (born October 5, 1922) taught at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts from 1949 to 1981 and served as artistic adviser for Heidi Latsky Dance.
Brazilian actor and ballet dancer Iolanda Braga (born October 11, 1941) performed on multiple TV dance shows in the 1960s and went on to be the first black female actor to star in a Brazilian soap opera.
14 — German choreographer and filmmaker Raimund Hoghe (born May 12, 1949) served as the dramaturg for Pina Bausch (1940–2009) from 1980–1990 and began creating his own work, inspired by Bausch.
16 — Choreographer and co-founder of Grupo Krapp in 1998, Luis Biasotto (born circa 1972) created many works, including Mendiolaza (2004) and his last collaboration, How to Stay in a Dream, was conceived as an online performance. He died from COVID.
18 — Modern dancer/educator Helene Breazeale (born circa 1938) performed with the Limón company and on Broadway before chairing the dance department at Towson University, creating several student performing groups and a dance major.
22 — Japanese ballet dancer Mikiko Matsuyama (born January 10, 1923) is best known for adapting a Chinese film, The White-Haired Girl into a ballet in 1955, and continued to promote Chinese-Japanese cultural exchange throughout her career.
26 — Dance iconoclast and choreographer Anna Halprin (born July 13,1920) studied with the pioneers of modern dance in New York in the 1940s and relocated to California after WWII, founding her own performing group and creating her own teaching methods that inspired the generation of post-modern choreographers in the 1960s.
Italian ballerina Luciana Novaro (born March 3, 1923) performed at La Scala between 1941–1956 and choreographed for the Vienna State Opera and briefly directed La Scala Ballet Company in the 1960s.
27 — Italian ballerina Carla Fracci (born August 20, 1936) is best known for her performance in Romantic-era ballets including Giselle (1841), pursued a freelance career in the 1960s and directed numerous Italian ballet companies following her retirement from the stage.
Russian ballerina Violetta Elvin (born November 3, 1923) danced with the Bolshoi Ballet before joining the Royal Ballet in 1945, becoming the first Soviet ballerina to do so.
29 — Dance teacher Maria Giacobbe (born February 14, 192?) founded her school of dance in New Orleans in 1943, the Delta Festival Ballet in 1969, and the New Orleans Youth Ballet, influencing the development of generations of dancers.
June
4 — Armenian-born ballet dancer Vilen Galstyan (born February 12, 1941) appeared in more than sixty films and performed at the Bolshoi and with the Spendiaryan Opera and Ballet Theatre, where he served as chief choreographer starting in 2013.
Choreographer Michael Matthew Ferrell created dances for Chanhassen, Minnesota-based professional dinner theatre — the largest one of its kind in the United States.
13 — Ukranian dancer/choreographer Grigoriy Chapkis (born February 24, 1930) performed with the Pavlo Virsky ensemble and was a judge for Dancing with the Stars starting in 2006. Chapkis died of COVID.
18 — Dance teacher June Finch (born June 13, 1940) produced work for her own company between 1977–1982, performed with Viola Farber (1931–1998) and taught the Cunningham Technique to several generations of modern dancers.
22 — Blackfeet dancer Joe Sam Scabby Robe (born June 7, 1959) was a champion Grass Dancer who performed internationally and at countless powwow gatherings and competitions and was dubbed the “man of 1,000 moves” for his creativity and versatility.
23 — Arts manager Sheldon Soffer (born August 20, 1927) sponsored and mentored dance companies such as Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Pilobolus, Parsons Dance, MOMIX, Boston, Ballet, and many others.
Sri Lankan dancer/choreographer Kulasiri Budawatta (born May 6, 1950) came from a family of traditional dancers and excelled in the Kandyan style. He founded his own school in 1986 following a world tour.
24 — Russian ballerina Olga Moiseyeva (born December 25, 1928) danced with the Kirov Ballet from the late 1940s until retiring from the stage to coach in 1973. She was also featured in the 2006 documentary Ballerina.
28 — Dancer, reporter, and editor of the Phoenix Gazette, Lois Boyles (born August 24, 1927) began her career as a ballet dancer, but after finding little professional success in New York, she took up journalism and continued dancing to jazz music.
July
3 — Journalist, reporter, and writer Ayesha K. Faines (born circa 1986) was also a competitive salsa dancer.
4 — Modern dancer Don Martin (born 1931) performed with Lester Horton (1906–1953) in the late 1940s and was an original member of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. Martin spent much of his career preserving the work and teachings of Horton.
5 — Italian singer/actor/dancer Raffaella Carrà (June 18, 1943) studied at the National Academy of dance in Rome and continued singing and dancing on TV shows in the 1970s.
7 — Ballet dancer Oleg Briansky (born on November 29, 1929) danced with Roland Petit (1924–2011) beginning in 1946 and with Festival Ballet in the early 1950s. A persistent knee injury led to the founding of the Briansky Saratoga Ballet Center summer school in 1965.
Dancer/actor Chick Vennera (born March 27, 1947) danced in the original production of Grease (1973) on Broadway and danced on top of a car in the movie Thank God it’s Friday (1978) before pursuing acting and voice acting roles.
11 — Dance ethnologist Allegra Fuller Snyder (born August 28, 1927) was a pioneer in the field and specialized in Native American dance, particularly the Yaqui, and she was a professor at UCLA.
25 — Ballet dancer Philip Chatfield (born December 2, 1927) performed with the Royal Ballet from 1943–1959 and retired from performing with his wife Rowena Jackson (born March 24, 1926) and relocated to New Zealand, later directing the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
27 — Irish dancer/actor Ray McBride (born circa 1952) won several All-Ireland medals for his dancing before deciding to pursue acting, later appearing in the film Angela’s Ashes (1999).
August — none
September
16 — Movie musical dancer/singer Jane Powell (born April 1, 1929) starred in 1940s and 1950s musicals such as Royal Wedding (1951) and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), later appearing regularly on TV variety shows.
22 — English ballet dancer turned photojournalist Colin Jones (born August 8, 1936) danced with the Royal Ballet in the early 1960s and picked up a camera during that time, documenting backstage dance life.
23 — Puerto Rican salsa musician and dancer Roberto Roena, (born January 16, 1940) won multiple talent contests for dance routines created for himself and his brother. He went on to play percussion and lead his own band, also performing with the Fania All Stars.
27 — Estonian dancer/choreographer Ülo Vilimaa (born March 13, 1941) performed with the Vanemuine Theatre from 1962–1974, later as ballet master from 1974–1997.
October
6 — Mexican actor/dancer Otilia Larrañaga (born November 3, 1931) made a name for herself as a dancer before moving to acting, appearing in films during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema (1936–1956).
8 — Dancer Thomas F. Dwyer (born July 31, 1934) joined Liz Lerman’s Dance Exchange in his 50s in 1988, after retiring from the Department of State in the area of telecommunications. He performed with the modern dance company for more than 30 years.
12 — Scholar of African diasporic dance and teacher Kariamu Welsh (born September 22, 1949) earned a Doctorate of Arts in dance history and taught the African dance method of Umfundalai (translates to “essence”) at Temple University and was the artistic director of Kariamu & Company: Traditions.
19 — Norwegian choreographer Kjersti Alveberg (born July 26, 1948) studied ballet and worked in theatrical dance, later creating ballets for stage and TV productions.
23 — Indian actor/dancer Minoo Mumtaz (born April 26, 1942) grew up in a dance family and began performing as a child, working on the stage and in films of the 1950s and 1960s.
27 — Ballet dancer Wakefield Poole (born February 24, 1936) performed with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo starting in 1957 and appears in the 2005 Ballets Russes documentary.
November
4 — Dancer and TV personality Lionel Blair (born circa 1929) appeared on variety shows with his troupe in the 1960s and on films such as A Hard Day’s Night (1964).
8 — Originally from Cuba, Amalia Aguilar (born July 3, 1924) spent most of her career in Mexico, dancing in theatres, cabarets, and on film. She was invited to appear in the Hollywood film A Night at the Follies (1947), but declined to make any other films in the US.
10 — Indian choreographer Cool Jayanth created choreography for many films in the Tamil and Malayan film industries beginning in the 1990s. Jayanth was part of a small group of dance masters including choreographer Prabu Deva (born April 3, 1973).
25 — Choreographer Ronn Guidi founded the Oakland Ballet in 1965 and strove to have the company reflect the eclectic composition of his native Oakland and his company was the first to restage the works of Ballets Russes choreographer Bronislava Nijinska (1891–1972).
28 — Choreographer K. Sivasankar (born December 7, 1948) created dances for Telugu and Tamil cinema beginning in 1975, specializing in dances for female dance stars. His credits include over 800 films and he died of COVID.
29 — Aboriginal dancer/actor David Gulpilil (born circa 1953) was a ceremonial dancer as a youth and was cast at the age of 16 in the movie Walkabout (1971), making him an international celebrity. He organized several dance troupes to perform in festivals and appeared in multiple Hollywood films including Crocodile Dundee (1986) and Australia (2008)
30 — Native American ballerina and sister of Maria Tallchief (1925–2013) Marjorie Tallchief (born October 19, 1926) was one of the Five Moons, Native American stars of ballet in the 1950s, Marjorie performed with the Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
December
3 — Professor of dance Kathleen Kerr (born November 8, 1947) taught folk dance at Oregon State University for 15 years and at the University of Northern Iowa for an additional 20, directing the UNI International Dance Theatre.
11 — Russian ballerina Galina Samsova (born March 14, 1937) danced with the Kiev Opera Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, and the London Festival Ballet from 1964–1973. She later directed the Scottish Ballet from 1991–1997.
12 — Choreographer Na-Ni Chen (born 1959) was trained in classic Bejing Opera style and danced with Cloud Gate Theatre, later choreographing contemporary work inspired by her Chinese heritage.
21 — Dancer Zhora Korolyov (born October 6, 1987) performed on the Polish version of Dancing with the Stars and appeared in films and on TV programs.
2020 Tribute: Dancers Lost
Dancers Lost in 2020
This was a year that took a great many beloved dancers. Join us on this final day of a very memorable year as we celebrate their lives and the joy they brought audiences around the world.
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Sally Banes — Dance Author and reviewer
Laneeka Barksdale — Detroit ballroom dancer (one of many who succumbed to COVID in the ballroom dance community of Detroit)
Virginia Bosler — Dancer in Oklahoma! (movie-1955)
Donald Bradburn — Dancer and photographer for Dance Magazine
Wilhelm Burmann — Revered ballet teacher at Steps on Broadway
Don “Campbellock” Campbell — Creator of the locking technique in hip-hop funk dance
Marge Champion — Movie musical dancer and wife of Gower Champion
Tony Charmoli — Director of TV dance programs, including The Nutcracker (1977)
Nick Cordero — Star of Broadway musical Bullets over Broadway (2014)
Othella Dallas — Danced with Katherine Dunham’s company
Astad Deboo — Indian contemporary dancer/choreographer
Norma Doggett — Appeared in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) movie
El Príncipe Gitano— Flamenco singer/dancer
Joyce Ellis — Dancer and children’s advocate
Jean Erdman — Danced with Martha Graham and married to Joseph Campbell
Nikolai Fadeyechev — Ballet dancer with the Bolshoi and trained dancers
Marta C. Gonzales — Ballet dancer and Alzheimer’s patient featured in viral video
Marie Hale — Founder of Ballet Florida
Anne P. Hamilton — Illinois-based award winning ballroom dancer
Susan Hendl — Ballerina and longtime NYCB teacher
Kathleen Hermesdorf — San Francisco-based choreographer and founder of the Fresh Festival
Zizi Jeanmarie — French ballet dancer and wife of choreographer Roland Petit
Louis Johnson — Choreographer of the movie version of The Wiz (1978)
Betty Jones — Danced with José Limón
Paula Kelly — Broadway and musical film dancer
Cliff Keuter — Modern dancer/choreographer
Saroj Khan — Bollywood choreographer
Sunil Kothari — Classical Indian dance historian
Labba Labba — Jamaican dancehall dancer
Nakotah LaRance — Native American hoop dancer and Cirque du Soleil performer
Sara Leland — Ballet dancer with the NYCB
Claire Mallardi — Founded the Harvard dance program
Helen McGehee — Danced with Martha Graham
Sobha Naidu — Kuchipudi dancer
Luis Olivares — American Spanish dancer
Betty Jane Pa — Legendary Hawaiian dancer
Aileen Passloff — Co-chair and teacher at Bard College from 1969–1990
Carol Paumgarten — Founder of Steps on Broadway
Nina Popova — Ballet dancer who escaped the Bolsheviks in Russia and the Nazis in Paris, but not the coronavirus of 2020
Tyrone “The Bone” Proctor — Waacking pioneer
Carla Prucnal — Founder of Johnstown Concert Ballet School in Pennsylvania
Adolfo “Shabba Doo” Quiñones — starred in Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984)
Istvan Rabovsky — Russian ballet dancer to defected to West Berlin in 1953
Tommy Rall — Hollywood musical dancer
Chris Reed —American Japanese ice dancer
Ann Reinking — Broadway dancer and Bob Fosse muse
Silvia Rodríguez — Cuban ballet teacher at the Alicia Alonso National Ballet
Gregg Russell — Master tap dance teacher
Amala Shankar — Indian dancer and wife of Uday Shankar
Bobby Soletto — Former club dancer and participant in Stonewall
Lavona Maria Staal — Zimbabwean contemporary dancer
Nancy Stark Smith — Contact Improv dancer and editor of Contact Quarterly
James Snow — Beloved street entertainer in Indianapolis
Thanalakshmi “S.T. Shimi” Subramaniam — San Antonio dancer
Danny Tidwell — So You Think You Can Dance contestant and 2nd place winner
Tobi Tobias — Dance writer and critic for New York Magazine
Dave Toole — Differently-abled dancer who performed with DV8 Physical Theatre
Barbara Weisberger — Founder of the Pennsylvania Ballet
Agnese G. Wojdak — Former ballerina and ice-skating judge
Coby Yee — Revered burlesque dancer and owner of Forbidden City nightclub
Liu Zhen — Taiwanese ballroom dancer
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Check out my dance publication on Medium: Today in Dance