Karen Irvin, Founded The Cornish Ballet

Long before Seattle had a professional ballet company, before the University of Washington offered a major in dance and before videos brought the art to mass audiences, there was Karen Irvin.

Miss Irvin, who headed the dance department at Cornish College of the Arts for 27 years, founded the Cornish Ballet, an early part of the Regional Ballet Movement.

She also designed the college dance-degree program for Cornish, then known as Cornish School. She trained dancers for companies such as the Joffrey Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet and National Ballet of Canada, and worked to raise Seattle's dance sophistication.

Miss Irvin, who in the early 1920s studied at Cornish with the founder of Cornish College of the Arts - "Miss Aunt Nellie" Cornish herself - was an enthusiastic teacher. She created dance gems that challenged audiences and students.

"She was very strict. She expected a lot, and she got a lot," said her grandniece, Victoria Ferguson of Seattle. "She also helped students get into big companies, including Alvin Ailey (Dance Theatre) and San Francisco Ballet."

Miss Irvin died Tuesday (March 2) of heart failure. She was 89.

Born in Hastings, Pa., she moved with her family to Seattle at age 8 and studied ballet with Caird Leslie. She also studied with Lee Foley, who she said taught her "worlds" about lyrical style and expression, and with Nellie Cornish at Cornish.

She studied briefly in New York, then opened a ballet studio in West Seattle. She learned to teach dance by watching classes given by others, by reading and by watching every company that came to town.

In 1945 she joined the Cornish faculty. In 1952 she became head of the dance department. Four years later she co-founded Cornish Ballet with her longtime companion, Mea Hartman, who predeceased her.

"I tried to make (students) look better on stage than they really were and gave them ballets to help them grow," Miss Irvin once said. "Maybe they weren't good technically. But they danced. They had a feeling of moving, of not just doing steps."

Miss Irvin, Hartman and Malcolm Roberts built costumes and sets at their own expense until the 1970s.

"She was able to communicate her love for the arts, especially ballet dancing, to students of all ages and abilities and sent us into the world with enthusiasm, confidence, theatrical experience and knowledge," said William Whitener, one former pupil who went on to dance with the Joffrey and the Twyla Tharp companies, and now is artistic director of the State Ballet of Missouri.

Miss Irvin traveled to London and New York to see plays and ballets - and add to her collection of high-heeled shoes. Only the best would do for her stylish look, topped by her thick ponytail tied with a silk scarf.

Single all her life, she also bought fine gifts for her nieces and nephews.

"She was married to her job," said Ferguson.

Also surviving are nephews Wesley Towe of Burien and William Towe of California, and three grandnephews.

A memorial gathering will be held at 3 p.m. March 28 at the Daughters of the American Revolution Hall, 800 E. Roy St., Seattle.

Remembrances may go to the Karen Irvin Scholarship Fund, Cornish College of the Arts, 710 E. Roy St., Seattle, WA 98102.