TRANSITIONS.

PAULINE KONER, who died on February 8, 2001, was a tiny woman with deep, dark eyes, incredibly long arms, and a haunting intensity that made her appear a giant whether onstage, leading a lecture, or simply talking. Born on June 26, 1912, Koner was the daughter of Russian immigrants. She began ballet training with Mikhail Fokine, but felt that ballet was too confining for her. So when she finished high school at 15, she entered Columbia University's extension division to satisfy her parents but continued her dance training, which included lessons with Michio Ito. She danced in the children's corps of Fokine's company in 1926, and in 1928, made her professional debut as a soloist for Ito.

Koner began her lengthy solo career on December 7, 1930, in New York City. This was followed by tours of Egypt and Palestine and a period of teaching and performing in the Soviet Union between 1934 and 1936. Her time in the Soviet Union offered the opportunity for constant performances, a welcome change from the life of one or two solo concerts a year in New York. It also offered contact with numerous artists of the Soviet dance community, including the young Galina Ulanova, and those outside of dance, especially Vsevolod Pudovkin, the revolutionary filmmaker, who was perhaps the great love of her life.

On her return to the United States, promoters toured Koner as a "Soviet Concert Dancer." But an interview by Earl Wilson in the New York Post in anticipation of a New York concert in January 1939, followed by an adverse review by John Martin in The New York Times, caused such a crisis of confidence in Koner that she almost stopped dancing. It was during this period in the late '30s and early '40s that she met and married Fritz Mahler, a conductor and nephew of Gustav Mahler, and branched out into such endeavors as choreographing for "Holiday on Ice" and CBS television.

But after a number of years working in commercial dance, Koner needed more. She sought out Doris Humphrey, who had admired Koner's work, for guidance. Thus began a relationship that lasted until 1960, during which Koner danced with the Limon Dance Company and created roles in some of the more renowned works of both Humphrey and Limon, in addition to creating her own dances. One of her more acclaimed works was the powerful thirty-minute solo The Farewell, set to the last movement of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. It premiered April 30, 1962, as a tribute to Humphrey and is a capstone of her choreography.

Koner continued to perform, but turned more and more to teaching. She was on the faculty of the North Carolina School of the Arts in its early years, and her work with the young students inspired her to form the Pauline Koner Dance Consort, which performed from 1976 until the early '80s. She taught at the North Carolina School, the American Dance Festival, and, in her later years, at the Juilliard School in New York.

Koner is survived by her sister-in-law, Silvia Koner; a niece, Pamela Koner Carrano; and two great-nieces, Olivia and Chloe.

--C.C. Conner

JAMAKE HIGHWATER, anthropologist, author, lecturer, host of PBS documentaries, and dance company director and choreographer, died June 3 of a heart attack at his home in Los Angeles. The exact year of his birth is unknown, but he was born to Native American parents about 1930, adopted by Alexander and Marcia Marks around age 7, and wrote under the names J or Jay Marks until the mid-1970s.

Highwater was a colorful, controversial, and prolific man who wrote more than thirty books. He is perhaps best remembered for his dozen books on Native American mythology, art, and dance, including Ritual of the Wind: North American Indian Ceremonies, Music and Dances (1976).

In 1954 in San Francisco, Highwater and several friends formed a modern dance company called The San Francisco Contemporary Dancers, which he directed and for which he choreographed for the next decade.

In the early 1970s, having been drawn into the controversy surrounding the takeover of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, Highwater became an activist in the cause of his Native American culture. In Aspen, Colorado, during the 1980s, he presented the first seminars and art exhibits dedicated to exploring Native American arts. In 1984, he established the nonprofit, arts-supporting Native Land Foundation and in 1985, The Native Land Research Center.

He was a critic and/or contributing editor to many publications, including Grove's Dictionary of American Music, The Soho Weekly News, Esquire, The New York Times, and Dance Magazine. He lectured at many universities and colleges and worked on nine documentaries for PBS, WNET-TV, and the BBC, including "Myth & Metaphor in Society" with Joseph Campbell and a six-part documentary with Bill Moyers and Mortimer Adler called "Six Great Ideas." He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors.

--Richard Philp