Ballet Talk > Edith D'Addario

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Marga

Mar 13 2007, 02:49 PM

QUOTE

Author Sasha Anawalt describes D'Addario in the Joffrey Ballet: Robert Joffrey and the Making of an American Dance Company (University of Chicago Press; 1996). "As Joffrey's fierce but benevolent watchdog, she also sometimes made donations to rescue him and the school from financial trouble. Her generosity extended to Joffrey's students: She contributed toward the electricity bills of many teenage scholarship students and often steered them patiently through the terrors of living in New York," she writes.

The above passage is from an article written in July, 2004, about the Joffrey Ballet at 50:

Joffrey Ballet at 50

Anawalt gives the quintessential description of Mrs. D'Addario, the spirit of the Joffrey Ballet for nearly 44 years. She had an unmistakable persona -- you could immediately pick her out at any gathering -- as well as a distinctive look which, for me, includes picturing her with a cloud of cigarette smoke over her head!

What a loss to the ballet community. Another era has passed.

The news of her death is in today's links, which lead to her New York Times obituary.

glebb

Mar 13 2007, 08:49 PM

I met 'Mrs. D' in 1975 and enjoyed spending time in the Joffrey School office with her when I would visit in the summers. It couldn't be more than three months since the last time we chatted on the phone.
A great and elegant lady, she will be missed by many.
Rest in peace dear Edith.

Mel Johnson

Mar 13 2007, 09:25 PM

You know, it was like Edith to have her death handled by a single paid notice in the Times, on the morning of her funeral, last Thursday, March 8, so it wouldn't be possible for many people to disarrange their schedules by 11 A.M. and call what she would have termed "undue attention to myself." Her obituary is a reflection best contemplated in peace.

Well done, good and faithful servant,
May you have eternal rest,
May light perpetual shine upon you.

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