Maria Grandy (1937-98).

Highly respected and most beloved dancer, teacher, coach, director, wife, and mother Maria Grandy [see "Great Starts," December 1997, page 78] died of cancer at age 61 on March 28, 1998, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Grandy began her career with a very short-term contract as an emergency replacement with the New York City Ballet. She traveled with the company from Seattle to New York City, later joining the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. After meeting Robert Jeoffrey, she began a long association with his company, first as a dower in the second station-wagon tour of the Robert Joffrey Theater Ballet and later as ballet mistress of the New York City Opera Ballet, which Joffrey directed at that time. In 1972 she became associate director and then director of the Joffrey 11 company. In addition to her concert dance career, Grandy appeared in summer stock, on television, in nightclubs, and at Radio City Music Hall.

In the late sixties and early seventies, she became interested in Labanotation, studying it and becoming a certified reconstructor and teacher. Using notated scores, she directed many productions across the country and around the world, staging ballots by Joffrey, Leonide Massine, Antony Tudor, and Norbert Vesak, among others. She worked with such notable companies as the Joffrey Ballet, Vienna State Opera Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, and Ballet du Rhin.

Teaching was Maria's joy, and she was a mentor for young dancers all over the world. She taught at the American Ballet Center--the Joffrey school--for many years. In 1987 she joined the dance faculty of the Juilliard School, a post she held until her death. Her students included young people who have gone on to become soloists and even directors of many ballet companies across the United States.

Grandy contributed her knowledge and skills to the dance community in volunteer work throughout her career. She served on the dance panel of the New York State Council on the Arts, as a board member of the Limon Dance Company, as an advisory board member and adjudicator for the National Association of Regional Ballet (later Regional Dance America), and as a panelist for New Choreographers on Point's Ballet Builders. She was for many years on the board of directors of the Dance Notation Bureau, an organization for which she was board chair at the time of her death.

She is survived by her husband, Seymour Schorr; her mother, Frances Grandy; her two daughters, Allegra Fitch and Lydia Silverman; and three grandchildren. Dancers around the world mourn her passing, for she was a bright star in the firmament of the dance world.