The NYC Arts in Education Roundtable remembers and honors the legacy of Joanne Robinson-Hill, who passed away on Tuesday, August 27, 2024.
Joanne was a Founding Board Member of the Roundtable and a revered member of the arts education community. She began her career as a dancer, before serving as The Joyce Theater’s Director of Education from 1995-2014 and enjoyed a long career as a dance consultant. She was involved in multiple arts education organizations locally and nationally, including Dance/USA, Portland State University, Oregon’s Regional Arts & Culture Commission, Nashville Institute for the Arts, and served on the Editorial Board of the Teaching Artist Journal. A true trailblazer and visionary, Joanne was a founding member of the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education and described herself as a “lifelong teaching artist”.
Joanne was predeceased by her husband, jazz pianist Andrew Hill. We extend our heartfelt condolences to Joanne’s family and friends.
A memorial will be held at Trinity Church (76 Broadway, New York, NY 10006) on October 19, 2024 at 11am. An obituary graciously written by our friends from The Joyce Theater can be found online and in print in the September 22, 2024 issue of The New York Times. The Roundtable plans to share a tribute to Joanne at our upcoming Face to Face Conference taking place at Shepard Hall, City College of New York on April 16-17, 2025.
The Roundtable has collected quotes from Joanne’s colleagues and friends reflecting on her life and work. Read these tributes about her tremendous impact in the arts education field below.
Joanne was an elegant, regal, charming woman whose love of dance and dance education will live on in her work with The Joyce, the Roundtable, and through all of us whom she inspired.”
— Amy Harris (Consultant and Member of the Roundtable’s Board of Directors)
I am delighted to have had the opportunity to work closely with Joanne as a fellow board member during the formative years of the Roundtable. She always brought her very smart and incisive ideas to the table (and to the Table!). Joanne was straightforward, clear-eyed, and voiced strong, sound suggestions when we served as members of the annual conference committee, and our annual gatherings were better for her contributions to them. I am grateful to have counted her as a colleague.”
— Fran Van Horn (Founding Board Member of the Roundtable)
Joanne was my guide into the world of arts education and the mindset of being a teaching artist back in 1976 at the Lincoln Center Institute. I will never forget her workshop focusing on Alvin Ailey’s “Revelations.” Simple, elegant, and, yes, revelatory, a thrilling introduction to a new way of thinking that profoundly changed and enhanced my life. How fortunate I have been to continue to work and learn side by side with her for the following many decades.”
— Madeline Cohen (Director of All Write!, Symphony Space and Former Member of the the Roundtable’s Board of Directors)
Joanne, Madeline Cohen, David Shookhoff and I first met in those early days at the Lincoln Center Institute, when we were all in our twenties. For 48 years we have been the dearest of friends. Together, with other colleagues, we worked together to give birth to the Roundtable – one of our (collective) proudest achievements. Joanne was a model of high standards, elegance, and integrity. She demanded a lot of us, and we adored her. Together we carried each other through many decades of delight and challenge. I will miss her so.”
— Polly Kahn (Consultant and Founding Board Member of the Roundtable)
Joanne was a woman of extraordinary elegance and exquisite taste, in her work and in her life. She also had the most glorious throaty laugh, an infectious “heh heh heh.” When she spoke of the artistic and educational work that meant so much to her, her eyes would sparkle. She believed in the transformative power of the arts and was a forceful advocate for arts education. I treasure the time I spent listening to her stories of the early days of the Roundtable and her work for Lincoln Center Institute. I feel lucky to have known her and I will miss her.”
— Kati Koerner (Director of Education, Lincoln Center Theater and Former Co-Chair of the Roundtable’s Board of Directors)
Joanne Robinson-Hill was a true force in the dance field. I had the honor of working with Joanne when she was at the Joyce as their Director of Education. I have so much gratitude for her belief in my work. Reaching students through the art of dance was a mission that she moved through with grace and passion. Her loss is great and my Company and I send our condolences to her family, friends, and everyone who had the gift of knowing her. Lifting up her name always and forever”
— Camille A. Brown (Dancer, Choreographer, Director, and Dance Educator)
My memories of Joanne are mostly through the NYC AIE Roundtable where she was poised, thoughtful and critical. Joanne was a strong model for me as an emerging arts education practitioner of color and a woman. She had the kind of grace that I wanted to project and yet, she gave me space to be myself. I often think about her and our interactions, as I have advanced in this field and striving to find ways to make space for more and varied arts leaders of color and beyond. I will forever be grateful to her for her work, her wise words, her kindness and her deep knowing.”
— Courtney J. Boddie (Vice President, Education and School Engagement, New42)
Joanne was smart and intuitive. The many years of Garth Fagan Dance working with her at the Joyce after show talk backs and the student shows gave us all a healthy respect and admiration for her. Her knowledge and dedication was a rare and wonderful gift to all of us involved in opening the Arts to our young people. She will be missed.”
— Natalie Rogers-Cropper (President, Garth Fagan Dance)
I had the honor of working alongside Joanne on the NYC AIE Roundtable Board for many years. Her grace was its own choreography that lifted and inspired. I learned from how she held herself and how she did her work. She impacted the AIE field in multiple ways and she will be missed.”
— Anonymous
I still can see the first time I saw you at the second-floor landing, about to go to your desk at Joyce Soho. I was a 19-year-old kid heading into a new world as a soon-to-be professional dancer with the Stephen Petronio Company. Joyce Soho was going to be a central part of this new phase in my life, and I recalled thinking to myself yay, a beautiful Black woman works here; I’m not alone. I befriended you, and the rest was history. I Love you, dear Joanne; you are like my dance grandmother <3. I was honored to be a part of your life. I learned so much from you and loved our friendship. We both loved education and bonded over being dancers who married Jazz musicians. I will always hold you in my heart. Rest in peace, my dear friend; with love, Dava.”
— Davalois Fearon (Choreographer, Dancer, and Educator)
Words cannot express what I gained from knowing Joanne nor my sorrow at losing her. She was whip-smart, incisive, and discerning. She did not suffer fools gladly, but was a warm, generous colleague. She was gracious and elegant, always strikingly dressed. And she was utterly no-nonsense when necessary. As a co-member of the working group that formulated the theory and practice of Lincoln Center Institute in the early 70s, she would regularly bring us up short and refocus us when we got off track, with a stern admonition and a collegial twinkle in her eye. She did the same as a Roundtable board member in the organization’s formative years. She was a masterful educator. I still vividly recall her workshops on Doris Humphrey’s Day on Earth, Alvin Ailey’s Revelations, and José Limon’s Moor’s Pavanne. Exhorting and cajoling clumsy non-dancers like me, she’d put us through choreographic exercises that miraculously removed the scales from our eyes when we viewed those seminal works. She was a demanding colleague, a clear-eyed thinker, a gifted artist, an extraordinary teacher, and a cherished friend. For nearly five decades, she and I laughed together, cried together, thought together, and taught together. I will miss her dearly.”
— David Shookhoff (Founding Board Member and Former Co-Chair of the Roundtable)
Warm, kind, caring, demanding, gifted, elegant, insightful, strong, visionary, masterful, and generous. Joanne Robinson-Hill was tough in her direction of those of us who were Joyce Education Teaching Artists. I deeply respected her feedback on my lessons plans. She was direct and to the point, and she read every plan word by word – never missing an opportunity to notice what could be better and what was already very good. It was an honor and a privilege to have received her guidance over those years – she cherished our individuality as teaching artists and knew how to make us better in our own unique practices. I miss her and will remember her words of advice, always.”
— Amy Kail (Teaching Artist, The Joyce Theater)
Joanne was an inspiration to me as an advocate for dance education but also as a person who was a kind spirit who welcomed people to the dance education community and united us physically and artistically. She welcomed my students and I into the Joyce community and I will be forever grateful to her. She is a treasure.”
— Dr. Susan Turner Radin (Walt Whitman HS & Hofstra University)
Joanne was kind, gracious and exceptionally helpful when I first broached the idea of bringing MA degree dance education students to the Joyce for a better understanding of its educational, programming and development programs. I am grateful for her guidance then and through the years. With nostalgia, I continue to seek the spirit of her presence in the first row, left) of the theater, from which she saw many performances in her later years.”
— Patricia Cohen (NYU/Steinhardt)
After interning with Joanne and The Joyce’s Education Department, I was ecstatic post-graduation to join the team full-time. Joanne was very invested in my continuing education; regularly asking me what I was reading and learning about. I am so grateful for the cocoon of Joyce SoHo and hearing her rich knowledge of dance and arts in education. It was not unusual to arrive at the office to find Joanne in deep conversation with honored members of the dance community. She always wanted to know what performances or arts events I was seeing, and we would debrief every morning afterwards with her insightful commentary. I learned a lot about encountering a work of art from her and still find myself muttering “describe, analyze, interpret” when sorting out an aesthetic experience. I remember being nervous the first Dance Chat I hosted post-show at The Joyce and it going so smoothly because we had done a full “dress-rehearsal” in the office to prepare. She had a beautiful mind and her joy for learning was inspiring to me. I am so grateful for all I learned from her.”
— Melissa Croushorn (Former Colleague, The Joyce Theater)
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