Irine Fokine, who after teaching aspiring dancers from Ridgewood and surrounding towns for 60 years, died Sunday night at a hospital in Virginia where she was visiting her son and his family. She was 88.
Her dance company was one of the first in Bergen County to present performances of The Nutcracker 52 years ago, and the ballet became a holiday tradition for many area families for a half a century.
She created more than 40 original ballets, and her choreography has been performed in Germany, Poland, Colombia and Venezuela. She was also one of the choreographers for "Pavlova Celebration" that toured the United States.
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Many of her former students went on to become dancers in ballet companies or on broadway. Today, Eric Tamm is a rising star at American Ballet Theater, Amanda Hankes is dancing with the New York City Ballet and Kristine Bendul has a starring role in "Come Fly Away."
Miss Fokine's mother, Alexandra Fedorova, graduated from St. Petersburg's Imperial Ballet School in 1902 and was chosen to dance with the legendary Pavlova in a special performance for the czar in 1905. Anna Pavlova later became Irine Fokine's godmother.
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One of the boys in that performance was Michael Fokine, who created Les Sylphides, The Firebird, Scheherazade and many other famous ballets and is considered the founder of modern ballet.
Fedorova met and later married Fokine's brother, Alexander. They had two children, Leon and Irine. Michael Fokine immigrated to the United States in 1919, Irine's brother, Leon, came in 1929 and she and her mother followed in 1938 after her father died. Irine was 15 at the time and would go on to have her own career as a dancer, teacher and choreographer.
She is survived by her four children, Nina, Donna, John and Michael, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements will be held at . Visitation hours will be from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 7. The service will be held the following day, Wednesday December 8 at 11:00 a.m.
