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Jeanne Robinson

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Jeanne Robinson
Robinson at the 2004 Necronomicon
Born(1948-03-30)March 30, 1948
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedMay 30, 2010(2010-05-30) (aged 62)
Bowen Island, British Columbia
Alma materBoston Conservatory
Occupation(s)Choreographer, writer
Spouse
​
(m. 1975)​
Children1
Websitespiderrobinson.com/jeanne.html

Jeanne M. Rubbicco Robinson (March 30, 1948 – May 30, 2010) was an American-born Canadian choreographer who co-wrote three science fiction novels, The Stardance Saga, with her husband Spider Robinson.[1][2] Stardance won the Hugo Award and Nebula award for Best Novella in 1978 and 1977 respectively.[3][4]

Biography

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Jeanne Robinson was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Dorothy and Peter Rubbicco. She studied dance at the Boston Conservatory, and at the Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, and Erick Hawkins schools.[5] She performed with the Beverly Brown Dance Ensemble in New York City.[6]

Robinson was briefly married to Daniel Corrigan with whom she joined the back-to-the-land movement and began to practice Buddhism. She married fellow science-fiction writer Spider Robinson in 1975 and they had one daughter, Terri Luanna who died in 2014.[7][8][9] She moved to Nova Scotia, serving as the artistic director of the Nova Dance Theatre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she choreographed more than thirty original works.[5] In 1985 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's hour-long coverage of the Dance in Canada Gala spent twenty minutes showing the performance of Robinson’s work, FICTION.[10]

Her plans to establish the art form of free-fall dance, outlined in the Stardance trilogy, were cut short by the loss of space shuttle Challenger and cancellation of the Teacher in Space Project in 1986, although footage of her dancing on a parabolic flight in 2007 survives.[11][12][13] In 1987 she closed her dance company due to trouble obtaining grants and moved to British Columbia with her family.[10][14]

In 2006 she and her husband were invited by the First Lady to speak at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC.[15] In addition to her dance and writing careers, Robinson was an active practitioner of Sōtō Zen Buddhism, a lay-ordained Buddhist monk.[16][17][10] She spoke of her work as involving "moving koans, visual parables" but did not overtly mention Buddhism in her work until her work Zenki-zu which she created for Vancouver's Women in View festival in 1992.[6] Along with her husband, she was awarded the Inkpot Award in 2001.[18]

She was diagnosed with biliary tract cancer in February 2009 and began undergoing numerous treatments. She died, age 62, on May 30, 2010 and is buried in Saint Peters Cemetery in Provincetown, Massachusetts.[19]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Zero-gravity dance is a go; Dancer-choreographer Jeanne Robinson will realize a decades-old dream by staging a zero-G dance with the stars on Sunday". The Gazette. Montreal. December 27, 2007. Archived from the original on March 7, 2008.
  2. ^ Bear, Greg (May 7, 1978). "Nebula Awards give solid gains to science-fiction authors". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 24, 2012. Retrieved July 6, 2017.
  3. ^ "1978 Hugo Awards". The Hugo Awards. July 26, 2007. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
  4. ^ McIntyre, Vonda N. (April 18, 2016). "Stardance". The Nebula Awards®. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Jeanne Robinson". Capricon 30: Celebration! Program Book. 2010. p. 6.
  6. ^ a b Macpherson, Susan, ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of Theater Dance in Canada. Dance Collection Danse. pp. 489=491. ISBN 092900342X. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  7. ^ "Warriors". Graceful Woman Warrior. November 7, 2018. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  8. ^ "Terri da Silva Obituary (2014)". Legacy.com. December 11, 2014. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  9. ^ Kimber, Stephen (December 20, 1980). "A Space Age Marriage". The Windsor Star. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  10. ^ a b c Smith, Grace (June 15, 2010). "Jeanne Robinson, 1948-2010". The Dance Current. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  11. ^ "Spider Robinson's star shines in Worldcon's sci-fi universe". Bowen Island Undercurrent. August 16, 2018. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  12. ^ Meany, Ken (December 27, 2007). "Zero Gravity Dance is a Go". The Gazette. Montreal QC. Archived from the original on March 7, 2008. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  13. ^ "Zero-G Test Footage for Stardance Movie". YouTube. March 6, 2024. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  14. ^ "Nova Scotia Dance Group to Disbang". Ottawa Citizen. January 31, 1987. p. c14. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  15. ^ "National Book Festival, hosted by First Lady Laura Bush" (PDF). Library of Congress. September 30, 2006. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  16. ^ Undercurrent, Bowen Island (May 7, 2012). "Not done with cancer". Bowen Island Undercurrent. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  17. ^ Robinson, Spider (October 1, 1984). "Spider Robinson: Blog". Welcome to Spider Robinson's Official Website. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  18. ^ Inkpot Award
  19. ^ Kowal, Mary Robinette (May 31, 2010). "RIP: Jeanne Robinson 1948–2010". Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Retrieved May 31, 2010.
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