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Remembrances and tributes posted by dance colleagues to Facebook and other sources
Dianne Markham: With great sadness I read this. Much love to you and I see her spirit soar. I have many memories and some great stories about her. Loved her very much and the kindness she shared. Do remember those first few days of realizing she loves Peter!! Great moments.
Lance Rosenthal: Aw, Annie was the kindest person aside from Peter that I knew. May her memory be for a blessing.
Janis Brenner: I was just in touch w her last month...she never let on that she had gotten much worse, which of course was so like her. Selfless, enlightened, gracious, graceful, kind, beautiful... and to Peter... Mitchell and I send our deep, deep condolences and thoughts of love to you.
Kelly Roth: Peter — I had no idea. I am so sorry for your loss. Anne was always such a nice person- so talented yet free of affectation- a wonderful example and so generous. No wonder you two fit so well together- you share those qualities. Much love and prayers for you and Anne at this time of temporary separation.
Sara Pearson: Oh oh my heart. I can’t fathom this world without Anne! I had no idea she was ill, or on her way out of this world. Oh oh oh.
I think of her and Peter so often in so many ways. I wish we could all gather together right now and again and again in the s…See More
Janis Brenner: Dear Sara — Anne had been ill for a very long time... will try to call you, maybe tomorrow when it may be easier to talk without breaking down.... love you.
Carol Blanco: Oh Peter, I am so so sorry to hear this. My thoughts and best wishes are with you.
Lynn Lesniak Needle: Peter — I send my deepest and heartfelt condolences to you. Both you and Anne were such role models of dignity and grace as well as generosity of kindness and warm spirits whenever I interacted with you as a young Nikolais dancer. Anne was so, so beautiful as a woman,a dancer, a beautiful soul. I am so sorry for your loss. I will always remember her inner and outer beauty, kindness, maturity, artistry and her uniqueness. My deepest sympathies.
Robert McWilliams: Oh my God! I'm so sorry to hear this. Annie had such inner beauty, and yet such command, as a dancer and as a person. I feel like I've just lost another piece of myself. I mean, she was the one who put laundry soap in my cubby and called me “stinky,” until I stopped being like that. She was part of what it meant to be a pro, to me, like Michael Ballard was, but in a different way. I am so very sorry for all of those near and dear to her, and also very sorry to hear that she had been very ill. Sending love into the skies... Anne, your spirit lives in my memory!
Carlo Pellegrini: Peter, This news comes to all of us as a surprise. Though I have not seen you both for many years I have to most cherished memories of you in the workshop and Annie walking by with love eyes. Many have said it here before me, but her inner beauty radiated exquisitely. Heartfelt condolences to you and yours. Annie will always be remembered in the most respectful and gracious of lights. Many blessings to you and all. Carlo
Michael Blanco: Lisbeth Bagnold — thank you for passing along Peter’s message, tho’ very sad. Please send our deepest condolences and sympathy.
Tony Micocci: Peter, I'm so sad to hear of this. Such wonderful memories of Anne and of touring with you both. My heart is with you old friend.
Betsy Fisher: I am stunned at this news and so full of love for Anne, Peter, and our tribe. I want to hug you all. Anne, our beautiful rose. How well you lived—how much love you spread.
Dale Thompson: Dear Peter, I am so sorry to hear this news. As well as being a beautiful dancer, Annie was a lovely person, consistent, funny and warm. Both of you connect to my many memories of the Nikolais Louis Dance Lab. Annie once taught us a yoga class that I really did not 'get' until about 15 years later, when I started to do yoga regularly in London. I still do it and I shall think of her in my practice. I am moved by the poem you have posted and send you love and energy. Dale Thompson xo
Marcia Wardell Kelly: I am so very thankful to have spent a little time with her at dinner after Murray’s memorial at the Playhouse. It had been years since we had seen each other. I also remember her returning to rehearsals after traveling to India with her mother to see Sai Baba. She was radiant. She tread softly in this world. I admired her greatly. She had “class” as Murray would say. I believe she danced in Katherine Dunham’s company for a time. Helen, do you remember when?
Helen Kent Nicoll: Marcia Wardell Kelly: I think when she was a late teenager or early twenties she danced in Dunham’s Co. touring Europe and having a blast.
Sara Pearson: Helen Kent Nicoll: wow! Had no idea.
Susan Penelope Lloyd: Sending love and prayers. Peter, I am so sorry for your loss.
Helen Kent Nicoll: Ironic to be in an airport right now as that was when I wished I had Anne’s ability to crawl into a book and close out the world around her. She did introduce me to Lawrence Durrell who’s Alexandria Quartet got me through an entire tour. My heart goes out to you, Peter and I feel such sadness. Anne was an original...a gentle spirit whose love of all creatures and a searching open heart made her a rarity in this world. I ache and weep.
Gale Ormiston: My condolences to you, Peter. I hear her laughter every time I hear a pun. I still will...
Jim Van Abbema: I toured with Anne with Murray's company several years. She was such a lovely person in so many respects. I think we all loved her. I had no idea she had been ill. I can't begin to imagine the loss Peter feels. Our thoughts are with you, Peter.
Doris Caravaglia: We all share with you, dear Peter, the loss of such a beautiful and very special person as Anne always was. She was indeed an example of a good life that she used to make us all feel that we mattered and were loved! What a memory to leave behind! And such a beautiful dancer! Your love for each other will give you strength! Gone but never forgotten?
Dudley Brooks: I remember Anne as a beautiful dancer and a lovely person. My deepest sympathy and condolences to Peter and to his and Anne's family and friends.
Jerry Pearson: So sad to hear of Anne’s passing. I didn’t know she was ill. I have such loving memories of dancing and touring with her. She was beautiful in every way.
Joan J Woodbury: What a wonderful, and remarkable creature has left this world. My sadness cannot overshadow the great gifts the wonderful joy she brought to my life.
Jim Teeters: All of these messages are compelling testaments to Annie’s legacy with those that knew her.
Betsy Fisher: It goes without saying that these are troubled times in our country and in our world. In these times, and all times, we have Anne with us, deep within us, with her steady, profound love for all creatures of hoof, paw, flipper, and even opposable thumbs. In Hawai'i, Hokulea is the North Star. The earliest Polynesian navigators made their ways through the great Pacific using Hokulea to guide them. Anne is my Hokulea. When I feel lost, I turn to Anne’s presence, there within me. She is a moral compass that steadily points me towards my true north. The map is more clear, its pathways more evident. Anne is a connecting agent from out to in and back again. The truest nature of our beings is love—love that finds expression in humanity, forgiveness, humor, nurturing, and art. This is Anne’s legacy, this is the gauntlet she throws down, and Anne, we are here. We joyously accept the challenge and move forward, each towards true north. You help to point the way. We will carry on. My heart is full of gratitude.
Further comments in response to Joe Zina’s posting of the above Porcelain Dialogues and Index photos:
Joe Zina: For Anne and Peter Koletske [photos]. How I will always remember her dancing.
Dianne Markham: Index. One of the best. Remember watching her dance the Index duet, which was so amazing. Also she learned all of Murray’s solos in Index.
Janis Brenner: And she performed them all, after Robert (and you and Sara) left.
Janis Brenner: My heart is breaking, Joe.
Sara Pearson: Oh my heart. How many times I watched every performance from the audience, then from the wings, then onstage. Every day for years and years together. Never a cross word. Never wishing another ill. Always supportive, open, honest, easy, with a great sense of humor. An apple and peanut butter for lunch.
Betsy Fisher: A beautiful soul.
Robert McWilliams: Sara Pearson: nicely put. She was all about kindness and healthy food in addition to being naturally spectacular.
Dale Thompson: Stunning woman...xo
Marcia Wardell Kelly: I am so very thankful to have spent a little time with her at dinner after Murray’s memorial at the Playhouse. It had been years since we had seen each other. I also remember her returning to rehearsals after traveling to India with her mother to see Sai Baba. She was radiant. She tread softly in this world. I admired her greatly. She had “class” as Murray would say. I believe she danced in Katherine Dunham’s company for a time. Helen, do you remember when?
Jim Van Abbema: Thanks so much for posting these, Joe (several I did not have). They bring back so many memories.
Kim Gibilisco: God bless her. She was a stunning artist and inspiration to so many of us.
Stephanie Scopelitis: Beautiful performer. I remember seeing her perform when I was young. God Bless
Additional dance world tributes and condolences received from outside Facebook:
Susie Creitz: Janis just notified me about Annie. She was a gem and one of the best of the best...
Lynn Levine Rico: Dearest Peter, Alfredo and I send our love and deepest condolences to you. Anne had a special grace as a dancer and in life...spiritual, kindhearted, calm, wise, witty, compassionate. She was a voice of reason on all occasions, usually expressed with a pun or witty quip. I am grateful to have shared time with her at the Dance Lab and in the companies. She was much loved and is deeply mourned.
Berh Bagnold: The words held in my heart have fallen inward, as my heart is now broken… I can't find the way to express the joy of what we shared and our love for each other past my sadness, grief and unfathomable sense of loss — my dearest friend, my sister, my heart-soul connection. So, here from David Whyte is and excerpted version of his “Heartbreak”. Goodbye for now, dear Anne. Until we meet again, my love is with you always, Beth
“Heartbreak is unpreventable; the natural outcome of caring for people and things over which we have no control, of holding in our affections those who inevitably move beyond our line of sight. . . .”
“Heartbreak begins the moment we are asked to let go but cannot, in other words, it colors and inhabits and magnifies each and every day; heartbreak is not a visitation, but a path that human beings follow through even the most average life. Heartbreak is an indication of our sincerity: in a love relationship, in a life's work, in trying to learn a musical instrument, in the attempt to shape a better more generous self. Heartbreak is the beautifully helpless side of love and affection and is just as much an essence and emblem of care as the spiritual athlete's quick but abstract ability to let go. Heartbreak has its own way of inhabiting time and its own beautiful and trying patience in coming and going.”
“. . . heartbreak may be the very essence of being human, of being on the journey from here to there, and of coming to care deeply for what we find along the way.”
“. . . Heartbreak asks us not to look for an alternative path, because there is no alternative path. It is a deeper introduction to what we love and have loved, an inescapable and often beautiful question, something or someone who has been with us all along, asking us to be ready to let go of the way we are holding everything and everyone that comes our way, and preparation perhaps, for the last letting go of all.”
“HEARTBREAK” In Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words © David Whyte and Many Rivers Press, 2017
Suzy McDermaid Fridell (Sept. 26, 2019): Dear Peter, So sorry for this late note; as I am not on Facebook, your sad news traveled a bit slower to me.
Memories of Anne come flooding in. Starting with our UCLA days. Even early in her dance career she was a stunning artist. I was thrilled to watch her combine her love of Emily Dickinson’s poetry and her dance in her Master’s choreographic project and performance. Watching her refine her gifts in dance and performing with Murray was always an inspiration (not to mention feeling a little envious of her gorgeous long limbs and ethereal movements!). The photos on the Bearnstow site are so exemplary of her unique presence. I will always remember peeking through The Lab studio door that separated our companies during rehearsals. Watching Anne dance so lyrically was such joy. She exuded passion, precision, professionalism and deep focus. What an artist!
And yet she had so many other talents and passions. Many I never knew until reading about them. How wonderful that she was able to take care of aging thoroughbred horses as she was taking care of herself. What an angel. We will miss and remember her gutsy laugh, sense of humor, and “twinkle in the eye” spirit. I am glad I had the opportunity to be a dancer in New York, in the “heyday” of Modern Dance, alongside Anne.
I send my heartfelt condolences to you and hope the mountains of memories you have will help carry you along during this difficult time.
Fondly, Suzy McDermaid Fridell
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