2020 Tribute: Dancers Lost

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

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Dancers Lost in 2021