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.