Nadia Chilkovsky (Nahumck)(1908-2006).

A passionate pioneer of modern dance and Labanotation, Nadia Chilkovsky (Nahumck) died on April 23. She founded the Philadelphia Dance Academy (now the University of the Arts School of Dance) and is the author of Isadora Duncan: The Dances Choreographed in Labanotation (1994).

Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Chilkovsky grew up in Philadelphia, moving to New York in 1929 to study with Martha Graham, Hanya Holm, Louis Horst, and at the Duncan Studio. She danced in Irma Duncan's touring company and was one of the founders of the New Dance Group, dedicated to promoting social change through dance. After a serious injury she returned to Philadelphia, establishing the Dance Academy in 1944. Former students recall her prodigious knowledge of all kinds of dance, and her powerful and by turns gentle or fearsome presence. A firm believer in "dance literacy," she expected students to master Labanotation and to study widely in academic subjects. One of the first interracial dance schools, the Dance Academy was a training ground for many artists, among them Judith Jamison. Chilkovsky made films on dance and music ethnology, notated a wide variety of dances including dances on the TV show American Bandstand, ran a private school for K-12 with a dance emphasis, and created a national curriculum for dance in secondary school education.