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Professional dancer, choreographer, and sacred-dance specialist Colley Ballou died of cancer on September 29, 2001, in her home in Nutley, New Jersey. She was 59.

Ballou had taught dance, yoga, and acting for the Parks and Recreation Department since 1971, and directed, choreographed, and performed with Nutley's Roche Players and Montclair's Pushcart Players.

She was a director of the Sacred Dance Guild of Northern New Jersey; codirected the Sacred Dance Guild Festival, "Dance for Social Change," held in 1987 at Sarah Lawrence College; and was the Sacred Dance Guild Ambassador at the First International Dance Festival in Avignon, France. She performed with the Omega Dance Company, the Simple Gifts Dance Company, and the Grace Church Dance Consort.

Her survivors include her husband, David; three sons, Scott, Mark, and Thomas; her mother, Merka Ballister; and a brother, Louis Ballister.

--Heidi Landgraf

Katia Geleznova, a Ballet Russe dancer who enjoyed a long career on Broadway, died of cancer in New York City on October 21, 2001, at the age of 78.

Born to Russian parents, she studied in Paris with Olga Preobrajenska, and at the age of 15 joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, performing both classical and character roles in ballets by Leonide Massine, George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, and others. She left the company in 1942, and two years later joined the Marquis de Cuevas's newly formed Ballet International as a principal dancer.

She performed regularly on Broadway in the 1950s, dancing for de Mille in Paint Your Wagon and The Girl in Pink Tights. In the 1954 revival of On Your Toes, she worked again with Balanchine, who cast her as Vera Zorina's understudy in the lead role of the Russian ballerina. She also danced in My Fair Lady (1956) and Camelot (1960), both choreographed by Hanya Holm (with whom she studied modern dance), and in Tovarich (1963), choreographed by Herbert Ross.

After leaving the stage, she taught at various private studios in New York City and was on the faculty of Marymount Manhattan College.

A dancer of great warmth and charm, Geleznova was married to the late singer-dancer-actor Michael Kermoyan, who died in 1994.

--Lynn Garafola

Elizabeth Polk, one of dance therapy's early pioneers, died on October 29, 2001, at Saint Luke's Hospital in Manhattan at the age of 99.

Polk was born and raised in Vienna, Austria. Her early dance background included ballet, Dalcroze eurhythmics, modern dance, and gymnastics. She performed as a concert dancer and opened her own studio before emigrating to the United States in 1938, shortly after Hitler took power in Austria.

In 1957, she began her work as a dance therapist at the Lexington School for the Deaf in New York City, and in 1958 she cofounded the National Dance Teacher's Guild. She was a founding member of the American Dance Therapy Association in 1966, helping the organization to establish itself professionally in its early years. Polk was active in shaping the New York State public school curriculum and conducted more than fifty teacher workshops in the U.S. and abroad during the 1970s. From 1960 to 1982, she taught at the Children's Center for the Creative Arts at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York; she also taught classes on the history of dance and the methodology of teaching children's dance.

In 1995, at the age of 93, she was honored with a lifetime achievement award from the ADTA as a chief pioneer in the dance/movement therapy field. She is survived by her daughter, Grace, who lives in Manhattan.

--Heidi Landgraf

Kayla Kazahn Zalk, an eminent and devoted teacher of movement, died on November 16, 2001, after a long battle with lung cancer. She was 70 years old. Zalk's career centered around her expertise in movement analysis. In 1965, she earned a certificate in the first Effort/Shape Training Program taught by Irmgard Bartenieff at the Dance Notation Bureau, the precursor of the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS).

Her career began with the study of dance, then branched out into more general movement studies. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from the University of Michigan, she went on to study dramatic arts at Columbia University.

Zalk's sensitive and caring teaching and choreography brought her to the faculties of New York University, LIMS, Brandeis University, the State University of New York at Purchase, and the University of California at San Diego, among others. At her death she was on the faculty of The Boston Conservatory.

Zalk served as president of the American Dance Guild. She founded the Greater Westbury Arts Center, was an accomplished potter, and maintained a lifelong interest in Yiddish culture. Her daughter's death in an automobile accident led Zalk to establish the Newton, Massachusetts, branch of Compassionate Friends, an organization devoted to helping families who have lost children.

Zalk is survived by her son, Jason, of Newton, Massachusetts, and her sister, Sandra Kazahn Masur, of New York City.

--Muriel Topaz

Longtime dance teacher and studio owner Lillian Arden Chiampa-Laurano of Lynnfield, Massachusetts, died December 20, 2001.

Kyongho Kim, a dancer with Diablo Ballet, died of liver cancer on January 2, 2002, in his home in Walnut Creek. He was 33.

Born in South Korea, Kim started his ballet training with Universal Ballet, where he studied with Daniel Levans, Roy Tobias, and Adrian Dellas. In 1989 he moved to New York, where he worked with Finis Jhung. At Ohio Ballet, which he joined as a principal dancer in 1990, he excelled in Balanchine repertoire (Concerto Barocco, Donizetti Variations, and Allegro Brillante) as well as in the contemporary choreography of Paul Taylor (Aureole) and Lynne Taylor-Corbett (Code of Silence). In 1995 Kim became part of the then one-year-old Diablo Ballet, where he danced Norbert Vesak's Belong Pas de Deux, the lead part in Balanchine's Pas de Dix, and Armand Duval in Val Caniparoli's Lady of the Camellias (Act I pas de deux). He also had roles created on him by choreographers such as Nikolai Kabaniev, KT Nelson, and Christopher Stowell. His colleagues remember him as a dancer of unusual dedication with a great sense of humor and as a generous and sensitive partner.

--Rita Felciano

Carl Wolz, founder and executive director of the World Dance Alliance, died January 2, 2002, at age 69 in New York City due to complications from cancer. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and, after serving in the Korean War, he began his serious study of dance while earning an art history degree at the University of Chicago. He studied dance at the Juilliard School and performed with the Lucas Hoving Dance Company in New York.

In 1962, he received a fellowship to study Asian dance at the University of Hawaii for two years. He stayed for twenty, founding the university's multifaceted dance program, organizing the Hawaii State Dance Council, and becoming one of the founding members of the National Council of Dance Administrators. Immersing himself in diverse cultures, he studied many forms of Pacific Rim and Asian dances. He published numerous articles as well as two books on Asian dance: Bugaku: Japanese Court Dance and Chinese Classical Dance.

In 1982, he was invited to serve as a consultant in the development of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA). A year later he became its founding dean of dance. During this time he initiated and hosted the annual International Festival of Dance Academies, bringing hundreds of young dancers together to perform for and learn from each other. He also envisioned and organized the Asia Pacific Dance Alliance, which later grew into the World Dance Alliance.

He left Hong Kong to accept a five-year professorship at Japan Women's College of Physical Education in 1993, after which he returned to St. Louis, Missouri, where he taught at Washington University. Continuing to focus on his dreams of a global dance network, Wolz then moved to New York City to work on behalf of his vision for the World Dance Alliance.

Wolz was noted for his knowledge and support of all aspects of the arts and their role in defining and connecting diverse cultures. He choreographed more than sixty works; notated ballet, modern, and Asian dances; and reconstructed many dance classics for professional companies and universities. He received many honors and awards, including recognition from the East-West Center, HKAPA, the Congress on Research in Dance, and the University of Chicago. He was a fellow at the International Council of Kinetography Laban.

--Phyllis Haskell