SCHOLARSHIPS IN DANCE
Sonja Dragomanovic Haydar
At the age of eight, a Yugoslavian girl began ballet lessons with Mia Slavenska. Madame Slavenska was formerly of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, the premier European ballet company. Later Sonja’s training continued at the Zagreb Opera House in Yugoslavia, now Croatia. There she studied, not only ballet and pointe, but the different ethnic dances of her culture.
She earned degrees from the Masters’ School of Dance in Berlin and the Conservatory of Music, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. She danced professionally at sixteen, and became prima ballerina and choreographer for the Salsburg Opera and later, the State Opera of Dresden. Sonja, the child, became Sonja Dragomanovic, ballerina. In Sonja’s solo concerts, she mixed her classical pointe pieces with charming character dances, including The Fire Dance by de Falla, The Little Mermaid, and numerous ethnic dances of her country.
Sonja came to the United States following WWII. She began teaching ballet in Washington D. C. She became the ballet mistress at the inception of the National Ballet of Washington where Frederic Franklin, formerly of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, was director. An expert in classical ballet and its related art forms, Sonja also lived and worked in Asia and Africa where she researched and filmed the elusive Pygmie tribes in eastern Zaire.
In 1968, Sonja began a new career at Mary Washington College as professor of dance and graced its dance program for twenty-one years. Upon her retirement in 1989, the college named her Professor Emerita. Mary Washington College, now the University of Mary Washington, long benefited from Sonja’s teaching, choreography, and sparkling influence on the college community. She was mentor to many aspiring dancers and choreographers. After her retirement, she continued to pursue her beloved work as artistic advisor/choreographer for Avery Ballet in Fredericksburg.
Sonja continued to live in Fredericksburg until her death in 2005.
(sources: interview with Gail Conway in 1993 and Avery Ballet program notes)
Claudia Moore Read
In 1934, Claudia Moore Read graduated from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro with a degree in physical education. In her first teaching position at the University of Nebraska, she was to teach modern dance. “Having only danced with scarves,” she felt inadequate. However, this feeling faded after she attended Bennington College’s summer sessions in dance. In the 1930s, Bennington College, Vermont, was the Mecca for the greats of American modern dance. There, Claudia, the physical education major, transformed into Claudia, the student of Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Martha Graham, and Jose Limon. She continued as a student with the Humphrey-Weidman Dance Studio in New York City and at the Bennington School of Dance. She joined the Humphrey-Weidman Repertory Company and demonstrated and taught for Charles Weidman at Bennington and at his New York studio.
At the very center of the revolutionary dance movement of the 1930s, Claudia learned from and performed with the masters. She continued her academic education, receiving her master’s degree from New York University. She continued her dance career by teaching at the State Teachers College-Wisconsin and at the University of Colorado before coming to Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia in 1945. Here she taught, choreographed, and invited companies like Humphrey-Weidman and Martha Graham to perform in Dodd Auditorium.
She was instrumental in beginning a dance major at the college within the Department of Health and Physical Education and was the founder of the Mary Washington College Dance Group. She has been honored in Who’s Who of American Women and Personalities of the South.
Claudia Moore Read retired in 1975, and President Woodard honored her as Professor Emerita for her contributions of excellence to the college. Claudia and her husband resided in Fredericksburg. She died in 2002.
(source: interview with Gail Conway in 1993)
Inaugural Scholarship Recipients | |
1993-1994 | Jennifer McNure, Gina Hernandez, Jennifer Green |
1994-1995 | Alison Knuth, Jennifer Green |
Recipients of the Claudia Moore Read Dance Scholarship or the Sonja Dragomanovic Haydar Dance Scholarship are dancers who have contributed the most in keeping dance alive at the University of Mary Washington. In addition to demonstrating academic excellence and financial need, these students will have contributed to the Performing Arts Club and the community at large. The students who receive the scholarships will also be accomplished dancers on stage, good choreographers, and have demonstrated a desire to use dance in their future pursuits. Scholarships recipients are selected by a small committee from Friends of Dance with consultation with the dance teachers at the University.
Claudia Moore Read Scholarship | |
1995-1996 | Heather Spring |
1996-1997 | Darcy Hart Parker, Angela Risser |
1997-1998 | Emily Shanaberger deFiesta |
1998-1999 | Dara Zitzmann |
1999-2000 | Sarah Pack Fischer |
2000-2001 | Katie Jantzi |
2001-2002 | Damion Bond |
2002-2003 | Erin Weimert |
2003-2004 | Kimberly Pittman |
2004-2005 | Susanne Mirabello |
2005-2006 | Jessica Polledri, Anna Synnestvedt |
2006-2007 | Renee Dalrymple |
2007-2008 | Amanda Schlener, Kelley Walsh |
2008-2009 | Jullian Guido |
2009-2010 | Jane Ballard |
2010-2011 | Sarah Sanders |
2011-2012 | Amanda Johnson, Jamia Jordan |
Sonja Dragomanovic Haydar Scholarship | |
1995-1996 | Not awarded |
1996-1997 | Not awarded |
1997-1998 | Robyn Oliver Hedges |
1998-1999 | Andrea Schmidt Miller |
1999-2000 | Sarah Lyon |
2000-2001 | Laura Keyser |
2001-2002 | Suzanne Lewis |
2002-2003 | Kellie Shanahan |
2003-2004 | Elizabeth Randall, Christina Coleman |
2004-2005 | Renee Dalrymple |
2005-2006 | Elizabeth Grace Randall |
2006-2007 | Jennifer Moore |
2007-2008 | Krista Dray |
2008-2009 | Kristin Gauta |
2009-2010 | Emily Sack |
2010-2011 | Rebecca Lallande |
2011-2012 | Kate Miller, Amy Newcomb |