IN LOVING MEMORY OF
SARAH JANE DUAX (1967-2018)
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the NOBA Center for Dance, Sarah inspired her students for 18 years at Tulane University as well as for many other entities. Always fascinated with anatomy and how to help people (especially dancers) best care for their bodies, Sarah became a Licensed Massage Therapist. While undergoing chemotherapy, Sarah completed the second year of Franklin Method training, qualifying her as a licensed Franklin Method Level 2 Educator. NOBA celebrates Sarah’s tremendous talents as a performer, choreographer and teacher across a wide spectrum of dance, and her love of dancing — on stage, in the streets, and anywhere the music moved her.
PHOTOS BY PATTI PERRET
The New Orleans Ballet Association commemorates the passing of our beloved dance instructor Sarah Jane Duax. Sarah began her love affair with dance studying classical ballet under the tutelage of Cynthia Whiteway at Academy of Ballet and Maris Battaglia at American Academy of Ballet in New York. She also trained at the Joffrey Ballet School and at Pennsylvania Ballet and was a member of Buffalo Ballet Theatre. She graduated from SUNY-Buffalo with undergraduate and graduate degrees in math and was a member of the school’s dance company, Zodiaque. While living in New Orleans in the 1990s, Sarah performed with NOBA’s New Orleans Ballet Ensemble (NOBE) in productions such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Alice in Wonderland, as well as for thousands of schoolchildren throughout the region in NOBE’s lecture/ demonstrations. She also performed with Ballet Hysell, Renverser Repertory Ballet and other groups in the city. After earning an MFA in dance (choreography) from the University of Iowa, Sarah performed with Off Center Dance Theater in Manhattan and taught for several summers at Northwest Florida Ballet and at Dancers’ Workshop in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Shortly after returning to New Orleans, Sarah took classical ballet to a different level performing with the Southern Jeze-Belles as “Lady Taboo” at the Shim Sham Club. As the founding choreographer of the Pussyfooters, she helped to create the dancing krewe culture that is now so much a part of Carnival and New Orleans. Sarah was loved and admired by her students and highly respected throughout the dance community as a dancer and teacher. In addition to