Transitions.

RUDOLPH DE HARAK

DANCE MAGAZINE's director of design, then art director, from 1954 to 1964, died on April 24, 2002, at age 78, from complications of bladder cancer. The influential artist, born on April 10, 1924, started his own design firm in New York City in 1952 after serving in World War II. Among his many accomplishments are his timeline and typographic displays for the Egyptian Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, his nearly 350 covers for McGraw-Hill paperbacks, and his innovative design for the futuristic entryway and facade of 127 John Street in Lower Manhattan.

De Harak, a jazz saxophonist by avocation and an exhibited painter, also taught graphic and exhibition design at The Cooper Union and was a visiting professor at Yale, Alfred University, Parsons School of Design, and Pratt Institute. In 1993 he received a medal for lifetime achievement from the American Institute of Graphic Artists. He is survived by his wife, two sons, and three stepsons.--Kate Lydon

BEVERLY BROWN

died of a stroke in Kansas City, Missouri, on May 17, 2002. She was 61.

Brown performed with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company from 1967 to 1974. Committed to live music in presenting her own work, she followed the suggestion of musician and composer Eleanor Hovda to use her voice while dancing. "It was like coming home," Brown remarked in a 1980 interview. Firefall was the first dance in which Brown both sang and danced, and subsequently the dancers in many of her pieces produced sound as they moved. Auditions for her company advertised that dancers who applied should be able to sing and play a simple percussion score. During teaching residencies and in her own studio, she offered dance/chant workshops and sound and movement improvisation courses.

To the end of her career, she maintained contact with the Hawkins company, teaching its movement vocabulary in company classes and employing its aesthetic of smooth-surfaced gesture arranged in geometrical patterns for her own works.--Don McDonagh

EDWARD STEWART

founder and director of Ballet Theatre of Maryland (formerly of Annapolis), died in Baltimore on June 30, 2002, at age 59. The cause was lung cancer.

Born in Pennsylvania coal-mining country, the young Stewart was fascinated by Fred Astaire movies. He took tap lessons, hoping to do musical comedy, but was recruited into ballet despite initially disliking it. As a dancer in the 1960s and '70s, he performed with Philadelphia Civic Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, in Chicago, and Robine Connnissiona's troupe in Baltimore. He founded his company and school in 1980.

Stewart, known for his reliability as a friend and the loyalty he inspired in his students, was a do-it-all ballet director, managing his company, teaching, choreographing, and handling so much of what was needed that "it may be impossible to find a replacement for him," according to Stewart's friend and colleague, dance educator Helene Breazeale of Towson University.

Stewart's legacy, according to teacher and writer Jane Ward Murray, is having shown how to be "a great guy in the highly competitive field of regional ballet."--George Jackson

FREIDANN PARKER

77, former dancer, choreographer, and co-founder of Colorado Ballet, died August 2, 2002, in Denver of complications from a bacterial infection.

A native of Cheyenne Wells, Colorado, Parker first performed professionally at age 10 in Denver nightclubs where, under the supervision of her parents, she did schoolwork between shows. She studied dance with Iris Potter and Martha Wilcox in Colorado and Hanya Holm in New York, and ran a school in Denver with Lilian Covino.

In 1961, Parker and Covino founded the Colorado Concert Ballet as a performance venue for their school; in 1978 it was restructured and named Colorado Ballet. The company, under the continued influence of its co-founders, has evolved into one of the leading regional American ballet companies today.

One of the tireless pioneers of American dance in the twentieth century, Parker lived to see her life's work become both an artistic and financial success.--Richard Philp

DUNCAN NOBLE

dancer, teacher, and choreographer, died on August 5, 2002, after a brief illness. He was 80. Noble was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, where his Scottish immigrant parents encouraged him to study folk dance. At the age of 10, responding to glamorous movie performers, he studied tap with local teacher Ted Cawker. By 16 he had started the study of ballet locally with June Roper. By 19 he had accepted a contract from the newly formed Ballet Theatre and dropped the family name, MacGillivray.

Tall, handsome, and possessing a dramatic presence, Noble found additional work in New York with modern dance choreographer Valerie Bettis. He supplemented his work in concert dance with Broadway musicals such as On the Town, One Touch of Venus, Annie Get Your Gun, and Can-Can. He worked with choreographers Jerome Robbins, Agnes de Mine, and Michael Kidd, and in live television.

Noble's dedication to ballet was sustained with daily class and a stint with Serge Denham's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo as a dancer and subsequently a teacher in its school. When an injury forced him to relinquish active performing, he became one of the founding faculty of the progressive North Carolina School of the Arts. His diverse background and perfectionism became a byword of his men's classes.--Don McDonagh