Obituary: Margaret Louise McLaughlin, Dancer and Ballet Mistress

Margaret Louise McLaughlin passed away on October 7, 2017 in Marseille, France. She was a classical ballet dancer and former resident of Larchmont, NY. Childhood ballet classes and recitals with Phyllis Marmein in Schenectady, NY, channeled her interest in dance and performance. She trained with the Joffrey Ballet and was a 1968 graduate of the Professional Children’s School. She appeared in dancing roles at La Mama and other off-Broadway venues. McLaughlin danced with the San Francisco Ballet and the Milwaukee Ballet before joining the Hamburg Ballet. The central role of Mary, Mother of Christ was set on her for John Neumeier’s Saint Matthew’s Passion.

Following a long active dance career, she was ballet mistress for Ballet du Nord for a year and for Les Ballets de Monte Carlo for 10 years. McLaughlin traveled to six continents with the Monte Carlo company. Jean-Christophe Maillot, artistic director, posted: “The Monte Carlo Ballets and I would like to pay tribute to Margaret Mclaughlin Blair who just left us. From 1992 to 2002, our friend was an exceptional ballet mistress in the company. She was at my side from the beginning of the adventure and if the Monte-Carlo Ballets have now acquired their reputation for excellence, it is thanks to people like Margaret who gave the best of themselves in service to the art of choreography.”

McLaughlin retired in 2002 first in Monte Carlo and then Marseille. Her parents, Daniel Joseph and Genevieve Slemmons McLaughlin, and her husband, Gregory Blair, are deceased. She is survived by her son, Sean Michael Blair and his family (Caroline Moll, Liam Antoine and Angelina) of Marseille. She is also survived by her brothers John, Martin and Daniel, their families, many cousins and friends. McLaughlin wished to honor the memory of so many friends overtaken by the AIDS epidemic.