Pearl Lang, Dancer and Teacher, Dead at 87

The New York Times has reported the sad news that Pearl Lang, a dancer who was a major interpreter of Martha Graham's choreography and who as a choreographer and teacher founded a distinguished company of her own, the Pearl Lang Dance Theater, died Tuesday in Manhattan. She was 87 and lived on the Upper West Side reports the Times.

Her passing was due to a heart attack explained Janet Eilber, the artistic director of the Martha Graham Dance Company.

Ms. Lang was a teacher at Yale, the Juilliard School and the Neighborhood Playhouse and was a valued technique and composition teacher at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance.

No stranger to the Broadway stage, Ms. Lang danced in the musicals "One Touch of Venus", "Carousel", "Finian's Rainbow" and "Allegro", as well the 1951 revival of Ibsen's "Peer Gynt," starring John Garfield reports the Times.

Pearl Lang is survived by her husband, two nieces and a nephew.

To read more on Ms. Lang in The New York Times click here.