Lillian Epstein Weisberg

LILLIAN EPSTEIN WEISBERG

“To dance is to live, and to live is to dance”.

-Isadora Duncan

Lillian Epstein Weisberg was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the younger daughter of Clara Barlas Epstein and Max Epstein, Russian-Jewish immigrants who escaped from Tzarist Russia. Lillian grew up in an artistic and intellectually stimulating household. Both of her parents were professional photographers, and her father loved classical music and to sing opera. Her older sister, Sylvia (Wohl), gave her books and made it a point to take Lillian everywhere, feeding her insatiable curiosity and drive to learn. Lillian and her family embraced the social democratic ideals of Eugene Victor Debs and Norman Thomas, and were active in the Labor movement. Throughout her life, she was passionate about the importance of working together to create a "bessere un schenere velt" (a better and more beautiful world). She also identified strongly with her Jewish cultural heritage and was very involved with the Workman’s Circle (now, the Worker’s Circle), a secular Jewish social justice-cultural organization. 

Lillian attended Glenville High School, and later, Cleveland College-Western Reserve University as a biology major and chemistry minor. She became a medical technologist as a means of earning a living in her early adult years. However, her true passion always was dance. She was told that, as a child, she danced whenever she heard music. Her father, who had seen Pavlova and Isadora Duncan dance, encouraged her to improvise as a means of self-expression. She began to study ballet at the age of 6, but as she got older, wanted to go beyond the “steps and poses”, and discovered modern dance. In college, she studied with Eleanor Frampton, a former Denishawn dancer, and over the years studied with many of the “greats”, including Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, Katherine Dunham, Alwin Nicholais, and Murray Lewis. She took teacher-training courses at Connecticut College and was a student at the American Dance Festival. She began the first children’s dance program at Karamu House and became the first Dance Co-Ordinator at the Jewish Community Center. She loved her work with children at the Cleveland Music School Settlement. Through a grant from the Cleveland Area Arts Council, she also taught dance in the Berea and Cleveland Heights/University Heights schools.

Perhaps her most notable professional achievement, however, was co-founding the Cleveland Modern Dance Association (CMDA), now known as DANCECleveland, one of the major arts organizations in the state of Ohio, and one of the few stand-alone dance-only presenting organizations in the country. Her idea and drive to bring the best of modern dance to the Cleveland area, both in terms of performance, as well as to provide opportunities for local dancers to be exposed to the finest teachers, is an important part of her legacy.

When she was in her 50’s, Lillian’s interest in dance as a therapeutic modality led her to study the developing field of Dance-Movement Therapy. She attended graduate courses at a number of colleges nationally and went on to develop the Dance-Movement Therapy program for DANCECleveland, again bringing many of the leading developers of dance therapy to teach in the Cleveland area. She herself worked as a dance-movement therapist at Montefiore Home, Eliza Bryant Center, Heather Hill Hospital, and McGregor Home and worked with stroke, Alzheimer/dementia, and Parkinson's patients. She was awarded the Marion Chace Foundation Award by the American Dance Therapy Association for her efforts to promote the field of dance therapy. She remained active facilitating a dance-movement therapy study group up until the time she moved to Durham, NC at the age of 99 to live with her daughter Laura and son-in-law David. She continued to make friends and was grateful to be embraced by the American Dance Festival community there.

One of Lillian’s greatest attributes was her ability to connect with other people. She was known for speaking her mind, but she also knew how to listen, and was infinitely curious about what made other people ‘tick’. She had a heart of gold, and was dedicated to helping others to achieve their potential. She was very proud of all the people she had mentored. A student to the end, she had recently begun taking piano lessons. And of course, she continued to move, walking a half mile every day. People often asked her what the secret of longevity was.  She would roll her eyes, but always answered (although not necessarily in the same order): Never stop moving. DANCE. Have the right parents, i.e. genetics.  Eat a healthy diet and never eat junk food! Don't smoke.  Don't drink. Stay socially active and keep making new friends.

Lillian was married for 71 years to Sam Weisberg, a man who adored her, and was a feminist before his time. He was an avid supporter of Lillian’s dance activities, and together, they made an amazing team. She has two daughters, Julie Hillyer and Laura Weisberg (David Wong), who could not have asked for a more wonderful mother, and was the much-beloved grandmother of Jessica Hillyer Nelson (Dan Nelson), Daniel Hillyer (Barr Morgenstein), and Liana Wong (Jonathan Zrake), and great grandmother of Evan and Jonah Nelson, Dylan and Ella Morgenstein Hillyer, and Mira and Nathaniel Zrake. She also is survived by her niece, Lenore Cohn, and cousin Tamara Dluzhevskiy (Sergey Dluzhevskiy), who was like another daughter.

In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be made in memory of Lillian Weisberg to DANCECleveland, American Dance Festival, or the Jewish Labor Committee.