Person
Biography
Lone Isaksen was a Danish-born ballerina, married for 40 years to Lawrence Rhodes, the director of Juilliard's Dance Division. She was born in 1941 and trained at Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Ballet School, where she caught the attention of the great Danish danseur Erik Bruhn. Acting upon his advice to come to New York in 1962, she soon was invited to join the Joffrey Ballet. After the Joffrey’s shake-up two years later, Isaksen and Rhodes became founding members of the Harkness Ballet where their signature roles in-cluded John Butler's After Eden. It was while she was with Harkness in 1966 that she appeared at the Pillow with a fellow Dane, Niels Kehlet. They performed Fokine's classic Spectre de la Rose as guest artists on a program shared with the San Diego Ballet. A Dance Magazine reviewer said, "…Miss Isaksen's subtle portrayal of the Young Girl restored the ballet's focal point and gave it a bal-ance it has all too seldom known." She later danced with the Dutch National Ballet and retired from per-forming to become a Pilates instructor. She died on November 2, 2010 after a long battle with cancer.