{"id":3397,"date":"2020-03-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3397"},"modified":"2020-06-12T15:17:40","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T15:17:40","slug":"wilhelm-burmann-dancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3397","title":{"rendered":"Wilhelm Burmann, dancer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wilhelm "Willy" Burmann \u2011 a German dancer, ballet master, and teacher – succumbed to Covid-19 on March 30, 2020.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Burmann was born on April 3, 1939 in Oberhausen, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, where he grew up on a farm. He had one sister, Chrystal Weideman. He began training as a dancer when he was fifteen years old.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Burmann was a principal dancer for companies including Frankfurt Ballet, Grand Théâtre du Genève, and Stuttgart Ballet. He also danced with companies including New York City Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and New Jersey Ballet. Burmann retired from dancing in 1977.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Burmann was a ballet master at the Washington Ballet and the Ballet du Nord. He was also known for his professional dance classes at Steps on Broadway in Manhattan, which he taught from 1984 until March 20, 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic required classes to be suspended. He had also taught at the Melissa Hayden School of Ballet, Harkness Ballet School, and Ballet Arts, and had been a guest member of faculty at companies including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, La Scala, Ballet Nacional Sodre, and The Australian Ballet. His teaching style, which was fast-paced and demanding, has been compared to that of George Balanchine, for whom Burmann danced for four years. Burmann was described by The New York Times in 2004 as "easily the most revered New York ballet teacher of his era".<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Some of Burmann's students included Alessandra Ferri, Julio Bocca, Maria Kowroski, Wendy Whelan, Alexandra Ansanelli, Ángel Corella, and Michele Wiles.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Burmann's longtime partner was Alfonso Catá, who was also a dancer and had been the artistic director of Ballet du Nord. Catá died in 1990 of a brain tumor.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n\r\n

Burmann began to grow ill in 2018, though he did not ease his teaching schedule. On March 30, 2020, he died in Mount Sinai West hospital from renal failure, after COVID-19 complicated his treatment.<\/p>\r\n<\/p>

<\/p>\n \n \n

<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wilhelm "Willy" Burmann \u2011 a German dancer, ballet master, and teacher – succumbed to Covid-19 on March 30, 2020.   Burmann was born on April 3, 1939 in Oberhausen, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, where he grew up on a farm. He had one sister, Chrystal Weideman. He began training as a dancer when he was fifteen years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[122,46,7019],"tags":[6191,923,6190],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/wp-content\/uploads\/imageholder\/uploads\/Wilhelm_Burmann.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1792,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=1792","url_meta":{"origin":3397,"position":0},"title":"Enrique Castell\u00f3n Vargas, Flamenco singer, actor and dancer","date":"April 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Enrique Castell\u00f3n Vargas aka El Pr\u00edncipe Gitano (\"The Gypsy Prince\") a Spanish flamenco singer, actor and dancer \u2013 died on 22 April 2020, due to Covid-19 complications. He was the brother of rumba singer Dolores Vargas \"La Terremoto\". At the age of 14 he made his debut at the Teatro\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Noteworthy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2537,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=2537","url_meta":{"origin":3397,"position":1},"title":"Dmitri Smirnov, composer","date":"April 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov \u2013a Russian-British composer and academic teacher, who also published as Dmitri N. Smirnov and D. Smirnov-Sadovsky \u2013 died on 9 April 2020 due\u00a0 to Covid-19. \u00a0 He wrote operas, symphonies, string quartets and other chamber music, and vocal music from song to oratorio. Many of his works\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Noteworthy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3359,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3359","url_meta":{"origin":3397,"position":2},"title":"Hilary Dwyer, actress, businessperson & film producer","date":"March 31, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Hilary Dwyer aka Hilary Heath \u2011 an English actress, businessperson, and film producer \u2013 passed\u00a0 away after contracting Covid-19 on 30 March 2020. \u00a0 She was best known for her acting roles in films such as Witchfinder General (1968) and Wuthering Heights (1970). She also performed on the London stage.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Noteworthy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2312,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=2312","url_meta":{"origin":3397,"position":3},"title":"Ella King Russell Torrey, human rights activist","date":"April 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Ella King Russell Torrey \u2011 public information officer for Eleanor Roosevelt, a recipient of the United Nations Human Rights Hero Award, and a human rights activist \u2011 died of complications from Covid-19 on April 14, 2020. She was 94 years old. \u00a0 Ella King Russell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "High Profilers"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3641,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3641","url_meta":{"origin":3397,"position":4},"title":"Philippe Bodson, businessman & politician","date":"April 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Philippe Andr\u00e9 Eug\u00e8ne, Baron Bodson, a Belgian businessman and politician who served in the Belgian Senate from 1999 to 2003, died from Covid-19 on 4 April 2020. Bodson graduated as civil engineer at the University of Li\u00e8ge (ULg) and obtained a Master of Business Administration at INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France) Bodson\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Belgium"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1856,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=1856","url_meta":{"origin":3397,"position":5},"title":"Teruyuki Okazaki, karate master","date":"April 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Teruyuki Okazaki a tenth degree black belt in Shotokan Karate, as well as the founder and chief instructor of the International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF) died on April 21, 2020 from complications due to Covid-19. Along with Gichin Funakoshi and Masatoshi Nakayama, Okazaki helped found the Japan Karate Association's instructor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Japan"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6330,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3397\/revisions\/6330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}