Sandra Genter

Sandra Jane Genter, who was integral in establishing dance as a serious academic discipline and became Barnard College's first tenured professor of dance, died in Manhattan on June 20, 2025, at the age of 91, after a long battle with Lewy Body Dementia. Over more than four decades at Barnard, she advocated to expand the curriculum beyond studio technique to include dance history, theory, and composition, helping to shape both the college's program and the national conversation on dance in higher education.

Sandra was a tall and elegant dancer who was celebrated for her modern dance artistry, her bright, zany humor on stage, and her decades-long commitment to elevating dance as both a performing art and a scholarly discipline. Born in Providence, RI, her father, Maurice Genter, was a pharmacist who owned two drug stores, and her mother, Natalie Brier Genter, was a homemaker. Sandra studied dance and movement at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating in 1955 with a degree in physical education. [It was not until many decades later that dance became recognized as a department at universities.] At Wisconsin, Sandra was a student of trailblazing dancer-educator Margaret H'Doubler. Sandra studied at the Connecticut College School of Dance in the summer of 1955 and received her master's degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1965. Sandra began her academic career as an instructor at the University of Rhode Island, teaching dance and movement in the Physical Education Department from 1955 to 1958. After two years as a professional model, she joined Barnard College in 1960 where she taught dance and various movement forms - initially, principally in the Physical Education Department, and, later, after its creation, principally in the Dance Department.

Her choreography has been presented in New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. Sandra choreographed, directed, and danced for Sandra Genter and Dancers, the Department of Dance at Barnard College, Dances Uptown, and shared concerts at Cubiculo, her work garnering praise from the New York Times for being "exceptional for its bright, zany humor" (Dunning, 1973). Sandra danced for a brief period with the Rudy Perez Dance Company in the mid 1970's.

One of Sandra's most significant contributions was playing a seminal role in transforming Barnard's dance offerings into a full academic department and major, advocating for courses in theory, history, and composition, in addition to studio training. (Interview in the Bernard College Magazine, Winter 2003, where Sandra related: "I always felt that we needed more than just studio classes in technique—we needed to have theoretical courses, and courses in dance history and composition.") She became the college's first tenured professor of dance and chaired the department twice before retiring in 2004 after 44 years of teaching.

Sandra studied with groundbreaking innovators, including: Modern Dance Technique with Viola Farber, May O'Donnell, Jane Dudley, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Jose Limon, and Pauline Koner;
Ballet Technique with Christina Bernal; Maggie Black; Finis Jhung; Zena Rommett; and Alfredo Corvino; and Dance Composition with Anna Sokolow; Doris Humphrey; and Louis Horst; as well as Margaret H'Doubler, Doris Humphrey, Anna Sokolow, and Paul Sanasardo. Sandra greatly admired and was a friend of Merce Cunningham, whom she interviewed at Barnard in 1988 as part of the Cynthia Sue Green Visiting Artist Series [See attachment for partial transcript].

In addition to performing and teaching, Sandra was a prolific writer on dance. She contributed regularly to Ballet Review, covering events such as Merce Cunningham's Ocean at its world premiere in Brussels (Winter 1994) and the Lincoln Center Festivals of 1999 and 2002, and also reviewed for the Dance Research Journal, Dance Chronicle, and Routledge (Fifty Contemporary Choreographers), among others, and continued to write dance reviews into her 80's. Sandra was featured in several articles in the New York Times.

Sandra remained in her magnificent dancer's condition until the last years of her life. In her 70's, she became a Certified Pilates Instructor and, in her 80's, she was the headliner at a dance performance in Washington Square on September 19, 2015 for Naomi Haas Goldberg's Dances for a Variable Population.

Sandra's profound love of movement extended to the visual arts. She was a gifted abstract oil painter who spent nearly two decades studying at the Art Students League, creating a remarkable body of work.

Sandra's teaching and mentorship left a lasting mark on generations of Barnard and Columbia students, whether they went on to careers as dance professionals on the stage or in academia or took her classes simply to learn and enjoy dance and movement.

Her brother, Alan Genter, predeceased her. She is survived by his three children, Peter Genter, Susan Omell, and Heidi Brewington, and three great nieces and nephews, and a great-great niece and nephew.

Contributions in Sandra's memory may be made to the Dance Department at Barnard College.

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