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Barton Mumaw, who began his professional career with Denishawn and went on to become the leading soloist with Ted Shawn's Men Dancers and a leading light of the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, died at his home in Clearwater, Florida, on June 18, 2001. He was 88 and is survived by his long-time companion, Marvin Morgenstern.

Born on August 20, 1912, in Pennsylvania, Mumaw was raised in Florida, where he saw a life-changing performance by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in 1928. He studied at Denishawn in 1930 and performed with the company the following year. During the next two seasons, Mumaw toured with Ted Shawn and His Dancers, and he was with Shawn in his first summers at a Massachusetts farm that would later become the site of the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.

From 1933 to 1940, Mumaw was a primary force in the groundbreaking tours by Ted Shawn's Men Dancers, creating leading roles and performing in more than 750 cities across the United States, Canada, and England. After the Men Dancers disbanded, Mumaw launched a solo recital tour and performed for U.S. troops in World War II. After the war, Mumaw appeared on Broadway and in touring productions of such shows as Annie Get Your Gun and My Fair Lady.

After Shawn's death in 1972, Mumaw devoted himself to perpetuating the Shawn legacy, teaching master classes and workshops throughout the United States. He continued a lifelong association with Jacob's Pillow, including stints as associate director as well as serving as a frequent performer and teacher. His last dance appearance was in the Pillow's Ted Shawn Theatre in 1981, and he returned the following year for the festival's fiftieth anniversary. He also coached revivals for a 1991 Shawn centennial program known as Jacob's Pillow's Men Dancers, seen at New York's Joyce Theater and on tour nationally and internationally.

In 1986, Mumaw collaborated with Jane Sherman on a memoir, Barton Mumaw, Dancer: From Denishawn to Jacob's Pillow and Beyond. The final resting place for his ashes is at Jacob's Pillow, where his image on the theater's weathervane continues to preside.

--Norton Owen, director of preservation for the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and the consulting institute director for the Jose Limon Dance Foundation

Dancer, teacher, choreographer, educator, and linguist Carmoncita Romero died of cancer on May 6, 2001, in New York City. She was 87. She was in the midst of preparing her memoirs, Soaring Spirit, which covered her years studying and performing with Katherine Dunham; her theatrical work in Chicago; her teaching years in Rome, Tokyo, Brazil, Cuba, Chicago, Atlanta, and New York; and her choreography for concert groups in the U.S., abroad, and on television.

Romero, an Alabama native, was born in 1914 and raised in Chicago, where her religious father prohibited her from studying dance until she was 18. She then studied with Dunham, whose dance style changed dramatically after a field trip to the Caribbean. "When she came back from Haiti, it was quite a revelation," Romero later observed, "because we found ourselves doing things that did not even seem to me like dance anymore. There were a lot of voodoo movements and pelvic movements that horrified our families when they saw us doing them."

Romero went on to perform with Dunham's first company, the Negro Dance Group. Dunham's productions of Tropics and Le Jazz "Hot" featured Romero in such numbers as "Rhumba Santiago de Cuba" and the "Couple from Memphis," and she was singled out by dance critics for her beauty and vivacity. Romero also appeared in the Broadway and film versions of Cabin in the Sky, both featuring Ethel Waters.

She left the Dunham company in the early 1940s to teach, choreograph, and do research. Dunham technique would be basic in her dance courses, while her research interests centered on the fusion of African, Indian, and European styles in Caribbean and Brazilian dance. She also danced in the 1954 film Carmen Jones, an adaptation of Bizet's opera Carmen with a black cast.

Romero opened schools of dance in New York, Chicago, Hollywood, Rome, Tokyo, and London, and she also taught Spanish. She was known for her ability to teach blind and mentally challenged or emotionally disturbed children, and juvenile delinquents.

Romero was preceded in death by a daughter, Carmen Hylton, a former Alvin Ailey dancer. She is survived by a son, Raleigh Mohammed Hylton.