French ballerina Zizi Jeanmaire died peacefully at her Swiss home on July 17 at the age of 96, reported Valentine Petit, Jeanmaire’s daughter with choreographer Roland Petit (1924-2011). One of the French dance world’s most iconic personalities, Jeanmaire was a trailblazer. A list of her numerous collaborators reads like a long “Who’s Who” of the […]

Helen Gray McGehee Umaña passed away peacefully on April 9, 2020. Born in Lynchburg, Virginia on May 10, 1921, McGehee graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in 1942 with a major in Latin and Greek. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, McGehee found her calling and her talent for modern dance while in college. After doing […]

A dancer/choreographer who crossed over from modern to postmodern, from the black dance community to the avant-garde community, Blondell Cummings was a riveting presence onstage and a steadying presence offstage. She died of pancreatic cancer last Sunday, Aug. 30. Cummings grew up in Harlem; she attended NYU and studied at the Martha Graham School of […]