Linda Tarnay
Dear Tisch Community,
I am sorry to share the news that we have lost a wonderful and radiant member of our community. Linda Tarnay, former Chair of Tisch Dance and Associate Arts Professor, passed away on November 6, 2018. Linda was an influential member of our faculty, having taught technique and composition at Tisch since 1972. Her visionary leadership helped to shape the Department of Dance into a prestigious program considered the top in the country today. Linda was beloved by her students and colleagues at Tisch Dance and throughout our community. Students awarded her the David Payne Carter Excellence in Teaching Award, our most prestigious award for faculty.
Linda studied with Martha Graham, José Limón, Merce Cunningham, Viola Farber, Nenette Charisse, and Lawrence Rhodes. She earned a B.A. from Bennington College and also a M.A. from NYU Gallatin.
Linda was a founding member of Dance Theater Workshop in 1965 and performed with Anna Sokolow, Lotte Goslar, Phyllis Lamhut and Jamie Cunningham, as well as in her own choreography. She was artist-in-residence at the Yard and director of Transitions Dance Company in London. She taught at American Dance Festival for 16 summers and was honored with its Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching in 2007. Linda was the artistic director of her own company, Linda Tarnay and Dancers. She received choreography grants from National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts; Creative Artists Public Service Award (CAPS).
Plans to celebrate Linda’s life will be announced later. For now, let us join together to remember Linda for the beautiful work she created around the world and for the generations of dancers shaped by her mentorship that are leading the field today.
We’re so very grateful Linda chose to spend her career here, sharing her many talents at the Tisch School of the Arts.
Allyson
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Allyson Green
Dean