Transitions - Brief Article - Obituary

Dance Magazine, July, 2002

Barbara Barker, a former dancer and author of highly regarded books of dance history, died at her home in Sioux City, Iowa, on January 3, 2002, at the age of 63 after a long struggle with cancer.

Born in Seattle, she studied at the University of Utah with Willam Christensen and danced professionally with Ballet West. She also worked as a Bluebell Girl at the Lido in Paris and as a singer-dancer-actress in musical comedy.

She returned to graduate school in theater and went on to receive a Ph.D. in performance studies from New York University. Her thesis, which was published in 1984 as Ballet or Ballyhoo: The American Careers of Maria Bonfanti, Rita Sangalli, and Giuseppina Morlacchi, shed flesh light on nineteenth-century spectacle ballet. Her next project, a critical edition of Bolossy Kiralfy's memoirs, centered on another figure at the intersection of high art and popular American dance culture.

From 1986 until 1998, when she retired, Barker chaired the dance department of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Barker devoted the last years of her life to a project aimed at documenting and reconstructing Agnes de Mille's lost musical theater choreography. At the time of her death she was working on a critical study of de Mille's work.

--Lynn Garafola

Lakshmi Shanmukham Knight, a distinguished Indian dancer, died December 23, 2001, after a battle with cancer. She was 57.

She was born in India on October 30, 1944, inheriting a rich legacy of south Indian music and dance. Her mother was Balasaraswati, the legendary bharata natyam master, and her extended family consisted of world-class musicians. Out of this milieu she entered a career as a bharata natyam dancer.

Her footwork was clear and accurate, but Knight was most noted for her abhinaya (the mime portion of the dance), which is governed by sophisticated choreographic formulas. She was a rarity; all of her abhinaya was improvised. Her improvisation flowed seamlessly with an organic spontaneity that was crafted by her superb musicianship, and the song's emotions were always expressed with an inspiring fearlessness.

Her husband, Douglas Knight, is a fine mridangam (south Indian drum) player and accompanied her concerts. They lived and performed with their son, Aniruddha, alternately in India and the United States.

--Emily Mayne