Dance School

An astrologer whose speciality is dance (as distinct, say, from summit meetings) would certainly have forecast the Judith Jamison premiere to be the highlight of the program presented by the University of the Arts' School of Dance. Jamison, after all, was the star of the Alvin Ailey troupe for many years and still wears the star glow she acquired there. As we all now know, however, astrologers' forecasts do not always work out as planned. The high point of the program, which was at the Shubert Theater last night and repeats there tonight, turned out to be Daniel West's Medium Red. West's work is familiar here, having been performed by his Washington-based troupe at the Painted Bride.

Jean M. Williams, 70, a dancer, choreographer and teacher who founded a dance school and company, died Nov. 24 of complications associated with Alzheimer's disease at the home of a daughter in Germantown. Movement was Mrs. Williams' business, and she didn't stop attending to it until after Alzheimer's had snatched away her memory. For 40 years, her movements or those of her troupe - the Germantown Dance Theater - moved audiences with their power, grace and beauty. Born in Philadelphia, Mrs. Williams began training in ballet at age 18 - a late start in that discipline - in New York in 1947.

Anthony DeVuono, 97, a tap dancer who dazzled audiences with acrobatic moves in the 1940s and 1950s and operated a dance school in South Philadelphia for 50 years, died Sunday, March 31, at his home in Columbia, Md. In the 1940s, Mr. DeVuono and a friend, Sam Perna, were known as the Vanderbilt Boys, a dance duo. The pair performed in theaters and nightclubs from coast to coast, combining precision tap dancing, acrobatics, and comedy skits....

The invitation to perform at a special event in London during the Olympics seemed so out of the blue Michelle Jones Wurtz thought it was a scam. The owner and director of the Pottstown Dance Theatre was puzzled, excited, and suspicious - all at the same time. So Wurtz called the American Association of Performing Arts Educators (AAPAE), the Florida group that sent the letter. She also began researching the group to make sure it was legit. When she found out the invitation was real, the euphoria set in. That was two years ago. On Monday, 22 dancers ages 13 to 18 will board a plane for London.

S HANA HEIDORN, 42, of Pennsport, owns Society Hill Dance Academy, which she started in 2002 on 2nd Street near Pine. She opened a second location in Manayunk in 2008. The school specializes in ballroom and Latin dance. Heidorn also runs a nonprofit called the Philadelphia Dance Foundation, which brings ballroom and Latin dance to inner-city schoolchildren in Philadelphia. Q: How did you come up with the idea for the academy? A: I moved here in 1995 to work for a dance school.

Mary Fiocca Yanetti, 98, founder of a dance studio in South Philadelphia, died Friday, Nov. 30, of respiratory failure at Pennsylvania Hospital. Mrs. Yanetti was known for the dance school she and her family opened in 1956 at their home in the 1100 block of South Seventh Street. AnnaMarie's School of Dance was named after Mrs. Yanetti's daughter, Anna Marie DiEgidio. The first floor was where classes in ballet, tap, jazz dancing, swing, and acrobatic dancing were taught. The second and third floors were living quarters for the family, said Mrs. Yanetti's grandson Jason Douglas.

While many Irish Americans are out celebrating St. Patrick's Day today in local bars, pubs and parades, a group of 61 children from a Bucks County dance school is marching and dancing its way through a parade in Ireland's capital. The students, ages 4 to 16, make up the youngest U.S. group ever to participate in Dublin's parade, according to their teacher, Christina Ryan. A native of Ireland and former dance teacher there, Ryan started her own Irish dance school in Richboro after moving to the United States almost five years ago with her husband and four children.

Robert Jordan, 68, says he always wanted to learn tap dancing. Finally he did - starting at age 50 - and he's still at it. "I wanted to take tap dance lessons when I was little and watching Fred Astaire movies," he says, "but my mother said that it was all very well to watch entertainers doing that sort of thing, but nobody in our family would seriously consider it. " And that was that until 1980 - maybe there was an Astaire movie on...

Although deep into work with the Philadelphia Dance Company and her own dance school, Joan Myers Brown saw a problem that she could not ignore. Back then, in 1988, Brown also served on the board of Dance/USA (a national service organization based in Washington, D.C.). She noticed that such dance organizations were not interested in audiences of color, and they really did not want modern dance, preferring to focus on major ballet companies. "I knew there were problems that black companies were having and thought we might address them collectively," said Brown, the artistic and executive director of Philadanco in West Philadelphia.

Paul Douglas Prickett, 35, whose love of dancing turned into a career as a dance instructor, performer and taxi dancer in New York City, died from complications of AIDS on April 1 at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan, where he also resided. Born in Mount Holly and raised in Lumberton, Mr. Prickett was named the best dancer of the Rancocas Valley Regional High School Class of 1975. He also played soccer during his freshman and sophomore years, served on student government and was in the Spanish club.

Anthony DeVuono, 97, a tap dancer who dazzled audiences with acrobatic moves in the 1940s and 1950s and operated a dance school in South Philadelphia for 50 years, died Sunday, March 31, at his home in Columbia, Md. In the 1940s, Mr. DeVuono and a friend, Sam Perna, were known as the Vanderbilt Boys, a dance duo. The pair performed in theaters and nightclubs from coast to coast, combining precision tap dancing, acrobatics, and comedy skits....

S HANA HEIDORN, 42, of Pennsport, owns Society Hill Dance Academy, which she started in 2002 on 2nd Street near Pine. She opened a second location in Manayunk in 2008. The school specializes in ballroom and Latin dance. Heidorn also runs a nonprofit called the Philadelphia Dance Foundation, which brings ballroom and Latin dance to inner-city schoolchildren in Philadelphia. Q: How did you come up with the idea for the academy? A: I moved here in 1995 to work for a dance school.

Mary Fiocca Yanetti, 98, founder of a dance studio in South Philadelphia, died Friday, Nov. 30, of respiratory failure at Pennsylvania Hospital. Mrs. Yanetti was known for the dance school she and her family opened in 1956 at their home in the 1100 block of South Seventh Street. AnnaMarie's School of Dance was named after Mrs. Yanetti's daughter, Anna Marie DiEgidio. The first floor was where classes in ballet, tap, jazz dancing, swing, and acrobatic dancing were taught. The second and third floors were living quarters for the family, said Mrs. Yanetti's grandson Jason Douglas.

The invitation to perform at a special event in London during the Olympics seemed so out of the blue Michelle Jones Wurtz thought it was a scam. The owner and director of the Pottstown Dance Theatre was puzzled, excited, and suspicious - all at the same time. So Wurtz called the American Association of Performing Arts Educators (AAPAE), the Florida group that sent the letter. She also began researching the group to make sure it was legit. When she found out the invitation was real, the euphoria set in. That was two years ago. On Monday, 22 dancers ages 13 to 18 will board a plane for London.

When your great-granduncle is the man many consider a godfather of Irish dance in the United States, a sloppy slip-jig is out of the question. So 11-year-old Olivia Tuma of Merion Station twirled, kicked, and tapped Sunday on a stage at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown with such precision that even a bump from a high-stepping competitor couldn't break her concentration. "I didn't run into her, she ran into me," Tuma said as she bent down to kiss her uncle, Peter Smith, the 80-something cofounder of the Irish Dance Teachers Association of North America.

As she endured treatment for breast cancer 13 years ago, dancer/choreographer Jeanne Ruddy read T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. But as she recovered, it was his Four Quartets that gave her solace, particularly the end of the third section, "The Dry Salvages": We, content at the last/ If our temporal reversion nourish/ (Not too far from the yew-tree)/ The life of significant soil. To mark the company's 10th anniversary, Jeanne Ruddy Dance presents Janet Pilla and Christine Taylor alternately performing Ruddy's solo Significant Soil in a celebratory run at the Wilma Theater that begins with a Thursday-evening gala.

Although deep into work with the Philadelphia Dance Company and her own dance school, Joan Myers Brown saw a problem that she could not ignore. Back then, in 1988, Brown also served on the board of Dance/USA (a national service organization based in Washington, D.C.). She noticed that such dance organizations were not interested in audiences of color, and they really did not want modern dance, preferring to focus on major ballet companies. "I knew there were problems that black companies were having and thought we might address them collectively," said Brown, the artistic and executive director of Philadanco in West Philadelphia.

At Harriton High School's homecoming dance, students got a bit too intimate, prompting the administration to spell out what students couldn't do at its recent Snow Ball. The result? This rule: Students are expected to dance appropriately. If a student is dancing inappropriately (i.e. crotch-to-crotch dancing, grinding, sandwich dancing or prone positions) they will be given one verbal warning by a chaperone. And if that doesn't stop the lewd dancing, students could be kicked out of the party or tattled on to their parents.

Jazzmin just loves to dance, and she's delighted to be a member of her church's dance worship team, which interprets the Gospel through music and movement. The 11-year-old also enjoys playing basketball and jumping rope. Participating in these activities in school is an important outlet for her, keeping her busy and focused while helping build her self-esteem. She also likes listening to hip-hop. Affectionate and charming, Jazzmin can be shy in unfamiliar situations, but she quickly warms up when she feels comfortable.

An inveterate musician, Bucky Harris could never celebrate his 80th birthday next month without song. So he arranged to have lots of music, "like one big show all day long," he said. He even wrote a four-part harmony to sing with his three daughters. Harris has come a long way in his 80 years, musically speaking. The Kensington kid whose mother played piano at a dance school didn't know how to squeak out a C-note on his saxophone before he enrolled in the Philadelphia Musical Academy at age 21, just after a medical discharge from the Army.