By Carol Norris
Enquirer contributor

Going through last year's Christmas cards recently, I picked up the one from Anneliese von Oettingen and reread it. She apologized for being late with her cards, but she had been ill for several months. I had forgotten she had been sick.

I remember sending a card to her Florida residence, saying I was glad she was home and on the mend. I made a mental note to follow up but never did. I knew she would call the next time she was in Cincinnati. We would have lunch, and I'd ask her a thousand questions about dance, just like always.

I'll miss those lunches with my dear friend. Anneliese died Monday, at a nursing home in Clearwater, Fla. She had heart problems for years, but it was a stroke in June that got the best of the seemingly invincible Anneliese. Her health steadily declined after that. She would have been 86 on Jan. 22.

Her cards were also late because, despite having spent two months mending in a Cincinnati nursing home, she had stopped on her long drive back to Florida (a trip she made annually by herself) to teach hundreds of young dancers at a former student's studio in Knoxville, Tenn.

Indomitable, compassionate, gracious, independent and passionate about life, Anneliese was a major player in the Cincinnati dance community for 55 years. Blessed with boundless energy, at one time she ran eight studios while directing her own dance company.

"She went to the people," explains Laura Hughes, who runs the von Oettingen studio in Cheviot. "She did the same with performances. We danced in tiny rooms in out-of-the-way towns to bring the `art of ballet', as she always called it, to all kinds of audiences."

She gave a lot to Cincinnati and got a lot back in return: the key to the city, a plaque at Peebles Corner in honor of her studio there, the 2000 "Woman of Distinction" award from the Girl Scouts and many other recognitions. Ms. Hughes estimates the number of students she touched to be in the thousands. They are scattered as teachers and choreographers around the country.

"She recently confided to me that her secret to teaching was `I insist on it'. I asked her what she meant and she said she would make a correction and stand there until the student fixed it," Ms. Hughes says, chuckling as she recalls the unflappable, persistent Anneliese.

Manners and compassion

Simple, direct and always caring was her style. Longtime student Lissa Henderson Evans remembers how she shared her unabashed love for ballet with everyone ". . . no matter their ability. And she had an incredible eye. One tiny adjustment could make all the difference in your dancing."

She taught a lifestyle as much as an art form says her longtime friend, public relations manager and occasional set-builder Phyllis Pierce.

Summers were spent teaching at her camp in Eagle Bay, N.Y., where everyone was up by 8 a.m. jogging down to an icy lake with her for a morning swim before ballet class. Young dancers learned manners, and how to cook and set a fine table. They also filled the pews for morning service every Sunday.

"She always said art is what's inside you that needs to come out," says Mrs. Pierce, who witnessed innumerable episodes of overt compassion. Mrs. Pierce recalls how once during the '70s gas shortage Anneliese heard there were women stuck on a bridge to Tampa, Fla., out of gas and desperate with little children hot and fussy in their cars. She loaded her car with gas cans and went to their rescue. "She said she had to do something," Mrs. Pierce says.

Ms. Hughes says her teaching methods will live on, along with many of her children's ballets, at her studio and through the many dancers she's trained.

"She developed a unique floor work - a real aerobic workout that creates strong dancers. We do it before every class at every level. And her ability to tell a story to get little kids to dance a certain way was wonderful. She would give them specific images so that if they were dancing like a butterfly, their feet, hands - everything - moved like a butterfly."

`Interested in everything'

Our lunchtime topics included dance, of course, but also art or nature or how to make the perfect pork chop. Her last card included a small artwork made by her brother, Gerhart von Oettingen, an artist in Germany. She had remembered I liked contemporary art.

"I have all these videotapes at my studio," Ms. Hughes says. "Anneliese made them for me. Many are of ballets, but there could be a commercial with dance in it, or sharks swimming or butterflies she filmed from a nature show. She was interested in everything."

In addition to her brother, she is survived by her sister, Barbara; daughter, Cornelia Berns; son, Tyll Sass; and 10 grandchildren.

Independent to the end, she requested no funeral or visitation. After cremation, her remains will be buried in a cemetery plot near her Eagle Bay cabin in Old Forge, N.Y.

A memorial service has been scheduled for 2-4 p.m. Jan. 26 at the Carnegie Center of Columbia Tusculum, 3738 Eastern Ave. A memorial fund has been established. Donations can be made to Kinderballet Inc., 3744 Glenmore Ave., Cincinnati 45211.

E-mail norris@one.net