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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