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WILLIAM MARRIE

Charismatic dancer William Marrie captured the spotlight early in his career and never let go. His death on November 16, 2002, just two days short of his 34th birthday, was shockingly tragic, but he left the world as he lived it--hard and fast. His motorcycle collided with a cab in New York City, and his sorrowing friends recall that Marrie often alluded to his early death on his beloved Ducati, a present he bought himself when he was promoted to principal dancer at The National Ballet of Canada in 2001. He left the company in March 2002 to join the Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel Broadway hit Movin' Out as the second-cast lead, a role that garnered him rave reviews. "We had been looking for six months before we found William," says Tharp, "and he hooked us with his daring, drive, and intensity."

Montreal-born Marrie became a ballet and Broadway star despite the fact that he had only begun dance training when he was 19. He first entered L'Ecole Superieure de Danse du Quebec in 1987, and joined NBC in 1990 after his graduation. Then-Artistic Director Reid Anderson cast Marrie as Petruchio in Cranko's The Taming of the Shrew in 1992, and the corps de ballet newcomer gave an explosive performance that unleashed a dancing actor of immense talent--a stage animal who could brilliantly bury formidable technique in characterization and make ballet look easy. Says former principal dancer Gizella Witkowsky, who was Martial's Kate: "He was over the top in energy, sometimes totally out of control--like a mustang, wild and full of spirit." This untamed quality allowed Marrie to excel in demi-character roles, whether the brooding hero in Cranko's Onegin or the dashing Danilo in Hynd's The Merry Widow.

Marrie was the complete male, a man among men, a Casanova among women, and was adored by both. He lived life to the full and his carousing was legendary, but he was also tender, sensitive, and vulnerable. On one hand, he was a big kid who collected comic books; on the other, he was a suave French-Canadian who was a gourmet chef and a rare-wine savant. Says former NBC soloist Sarah Green: "William was a powerful, passionate personality who lived like he loved and danced like he lived. He bored a hole into your heart."

MADAME HALINA (LUTOMSKI)

Madame Halina (Lutomski), a dancer and dance teacher regarded by her students as a mentor, died February 6, 2002, at the age of 77. Born in Poland and trained in the Russian classical ballet tradition, she opened Madame Halina's School of Dance Arts in Elmira, New York, after World War II.

As founder and artistic director of the Elmira-Coming Ballet Company, later known as the Twin Tiers Ballet Company, she choreographed, produced, and directed numerous full-length ballets locally and across the United States. She was presented with the Steuben Crystal and Gold Award, given by the mayor of Elmira, for "outstanding leadership, unselfish devotion, and foresight in the development of a regional ballet company: the Twin Tiers."

She is survived by two sons, a daughter, and their families.

LAVALETTE TOOTIKIAN

Lavalette Tootikian (Lalla Lezli), dancer and artist's model, died in surgery on June 23, 2002, after complications from an automobile accident. She was 91.

Lalla Lezli (a name she adopted when her niece had trouble pronouncing Lavalette) danced with her sister, Karoun Tootikian, in Ruth St. Denis's troupe and was well known for performing The Cobras after Miss Ruth's death in 1968. Lezli also danced in her sister's ethnic dance company, which performed traditional dances from Armenia.

A former student of Lezli's, Wendy Uyeda, remembers her as a remarkable and ageless human being. "Lalla would tell us that `the audience wants to believe you are someone else, so you have to arrive and leave as that person you are portraying.'"

Perhaps due to her abilities to change character, Lezli was beloved for her work of more than fifty years as an artist's model. She was still posing at the time of her death. An exhibit of drawings, paintings, and sculptures inspired by Lezli was held in her honor on November 16, 2002, at the Chouinard House in South Pasadena. She is survived by a sister, Grace Jacobian.

MEREDITH BAYLIS

Meredith Baylis died July 26, 2002, in Burbank, California, from complications following heart surgery at age 72. A member of Serge Denham's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo from 1951 until it disbanded in 1962, Baylis performed soloist and principal roles with the troupe. She also served as a rehearsal and administrative assistant to Denham during the company's American tours.

A native of Burbank, Baylis was the great-niece of Lillian Baylis, who founded England's Old Vic Theatre in London and invited Ninette de Valois to stage opera ballets and dance performances, which ultimately led to the establishment of the Sadler's Wells Ballet.

Although she enjoyed a successful performing career, Baylis's true gift proved to be teaching. After joining the faculty of Robert Joffrey's American Ballet Center in 1969, Baylis gained a loyal following of students who realized that her strict discipline represented sincere concern for their development. In addition to establishing and presiding over the Joffrey Summer Program, she offered a dance program for deaf children. Baylis also has been credited as having given Ron Reagan a scholarship to the Joffrey School during her tenure.

PEPSI BETHEL 

Alfred "Pepsi" Bethel, the jazz dancer and choreographer whose mastery of the lindy hop made him a legend around the world, died August 30, 2002, in the Bronx. He was 83.

Bethel, who was renowned in New York social dance circles, became an expert lindy hopper while a young dancer at the legendary Savoy Ballroom in Harlem during the 1930s. Later, the dancer who got his nickname from his favorite drink widened his repertoire to include other social dances--the cakewalk, boogie, calypso, and the Charleston. But it was the lindy, particularly the acrobatic moves that thrilled crowds, that became Bethel's hallmark.

Bethel performed with several companies, including the Mura Dehn Jazz Ballet. In the 1960s he founded his own company, the Pepsi Bethel Authentic Jazz Dance Theater, which performed African, jazz, social, and folk dances.

In 1969, the Bethel and Dehn companies performed in nine African countries as part of a special U.S. State Department-sponsored tour. Bethel also served as a consultant and choreographer for several stage productions, and in 1980 he was honored for his choreography in the program "Celebration of Men in Dance" at the Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center in Brooklyn.

WENDY HILTON

Wendy Hilton, a historical-dance performer, choreographer, scholar, and teacher, died of cancer in Manhattan on September 21, 2002. She was 71.

Hilton made a profound contribution to the international understanding of and appreciation for early dance, particularly of the Baroque era. Her 1981 book, Dance of Court and Theater: The French Noble Style, 1690-1725, is a valuable reference.

Born in England, Hilton trained in ballet in London and was introduced to historical dance through her studies at the Rambert School. She subsequently studied and performed Renaissance and Baroque dance with Belinda Quirey, forming her own company, the Domenico Dance Ensemble, in 1960.

Hilton came to the United States in 1969 to head the dance division of Rosalyn Tureck's International Bach Society. Her collaborations with Tureck in New York established her performing career. A gifted teacher, she held distinguished appointments at The Juilliard School and at a summer Baroque dance and music workshop at Stanford University that continued for more than twenty-five years. Her choreography was featured in productions at Juilliard and at the New York City Opera, notably in Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots, and in performances with numerous orchestras and early-music ensembles.

JEAN-PIERRE PERREAULT

Jean-Pierre Perreault, a visual artist and director/choreographer of Montreal's La Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault, died on December 4, 2002, after a long struggle with cancer. He was 55.

Perreault was a unique and uncompromising leader in Canadian contemporary dance. His large repertoire of works, with their huge, self-designed and painted sets include Joe (1983), a seminal work for a bleak regiment of thirty-two dancers in baggy overcoats and fedoras who foundered and slid up and down a steep ramp, their work boots beating an oppressive, rhythmic tattoo. Joe was the first of a series of pieces that peeled layers from the darkness of the human psyche. Each succeeding dance would expand the chink of light or hope that Joe began.

Born in Longueuil, Quebec, Perreault was a fine-art student when he met Jeanne Renault, founder of Le Groupe de la Place Royale, Montreal's first permanent contemporary dance company. He joined the troupe in 1965, and by 1971 he was co-director, along with Peter Boneham.

From the outset, Perreault's choreography showed the integrity to his artistic vision that would mark subsequent work. Decidedly experimental, Les Bessons (1972) was the first of twenty-three works he made for the company before resigning his post in 1981 to become an independent choreographer and eventually to teach at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal. In 1984 he established the foundation that bears his name and began working on the massive architectural scale that became his trademark.

The outspoken and intuitive Perreault began choreographing by drawing and painting. Little black squiggles on paper would become bigger, black, human shapes onstage. He transformed an old church in a low-income residential area into an experimental theater and warmly welcomed visits by his neighbors. In 2001 he inaugurated this Espace Choregraphique with the last of a series of installations at which the public, seated in private cubicles, viewed ongoing excerpts of his works.

Even though they were expensive to tour, his dances traveled throughout Europe, the U.S., and Canada. Perreault was also in demand as a choreographer for organizations as diverse as The National Ballet of Canada and the first New York International Festival of the Arts, which he helped inaugurate in 1988. His paintings and drawings were also exhibited around the world.

Perreault used to say he was difficult to work with, yet dancers from all over Canada vied to be in his productions, and he received several major national honors. He once said, "I have no idea what I am going to do until I arrive at the rehearsal hall with a composer and begin to make a dance. I churn through the process like a drowning man who fights for survival."