Robin Feld, musician & teacher

[deb...@comcast.net]

Point Reyes Light - December 30, 2004

Musician and teacher Robin Jane Feld, 55, dies

By Larken Bradley

Bolinas resident Robin Jane Feld, an internationally recognized dancer
and movement teacher, who directed the music program at Full Circle
residential treatment center in Bolinas, died at home Monday, Dec. 20,
of complications from ovarian cancer. She was 55.

Ms. Feld was a performer and teacher of contact improvisation, an art
form inspired by ballet and jazz. "It's a type of dance where dancers
move on each other," explained her niece, Melissa Feld.

"For 20 years she traveled every summer to Bern, Switzerland, to teach
contact improvisation," noted her brother, Tom Feld. "Many
international dancers cite her as their formative teacher."

Dancer and musician

Also a bass guitarist and a drum player, for the last 14 years Ms. Feld
directed the music program at Full Circle, the residential treatment
program for troubled teenage boys. Along with her husband, Paul
McCandless, the Grammy-award winning musician and reed instrumentalist,
she and a group of young performers at Full Circle last year recorded a
CD titled Taking Flight.

Born in New Rochelle, New York, on Oct. 2, 1949, Ms. Feld grew up in
Asheville, North Carolina. After graduating from Lee Edwards High
School there, she attended the University of Georgia.

She later converted a Christian coffeehouse in Atlanta into a concert
club that attracted musical luminaries including McCoy Tyner, Little
Feat, and Oregon, a group in which her future husband performed.

The two became a couple and, in 1976, moved to New York, where Ms.
Feld's dance career blossomed. Her choreography was performed at the
Dance Theater Workshop and St. Mark's Church, both in New York, and
at the Naropa Institute in Boulder.

An 'inspiring teacher'

Her teachers included Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith and Collette
Barry at the Susan Klein School of Dance.

In the 1980s she was a member of the Nina Martin Dance Company and the
Julie West Dance Foundation.

An inspiring teacher, "she gave advice in a way that wasn't looking
down," her niece said. "She was very passionate."

Petite and dark-haired, she dressed in stylish, fun clothes.

"The amazing thing about Robin was the amount of friends and deep
friendships she had," her brother reflected.

Ms. Feld was predeceased by her father, Edward Henry Feld.

She is survived by her husband Paul McCandless of Bolinas; mother,
Betty Lipinsky Feld; and brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Peggy Feld,
all of Thousand Oaks, Ventura County; and nieces Melissa Feld of
Hollywood Hills; and Jamie Feld of Westwood Village, Los Angeles
County.

The family has suggested that any memorial contributions be made to
Hospice of Marin, 150 Nellen Dr., Corte Madera, 94925.

A memorial service will be held in January at Commonweal in Bolinas,
date to be announced.

[mleb...@gmail.com]

I'm just coming across this: while doing a Google search for Paul McCandless, I thought to do one for Robin as well. I studied dance with Robin for several years, and I was the DJ at their wedding that they held in their loft on The Bowery in NYC. They would not recognize the neighborhood now: the streets are lined with Maseratis. So sad to come across this news. Robin was so special!

Best Regards, Michael Lebron, 36 Cooper Square, NYC