June 3, 1944

Iris was born in New York City to parents, Barney and Vivian.
 
1947

Iris’s mother enrolled 3 year-old Iris in both Blanche Evan’s School of Creative Dance for Children and in children’s art classes at the Museum of Modern Art. Iris’s close association with Blanche Evan, throughout Evans’ evolution to becoming a pioneer in the  Dance/Movement Therapy field, continued up until Evans’s death in 1982, and extended throughout Iris’s life.
 
1957 to 1961

Iris attended the High School of Music And Art (now LaGuardia High School), in Manhattan, majoring in Music; Bob also attended M&A High School, majoring in Fine Art from 1957 to 1960.
 
1961

Iris started undergraduate college at Boston University
 
1962 to 1965

Iris continued her BA studies at the City College of NY - majoring in Creative Writing & English Literature; Bob was also an undergrad at CCNY from 1960 to 1964, majoring in Art.
 
1965 to 1967

Iris taught in a public elementary school in the South East Bronx, NYC.
 
1965 to 1970

Iris participated in the St. Marks Poetry Project in NYC, including poetry writing workshops and friendships with several young poets in that community, including Carter Ratcliff, Phyllis Derfner, Ted Berrigan, Peter Schjeldahl, Charles Haseloff and Allan Appel.

Summer of 1966   
Iris and Bob first met on a street in NYC, purely by chance, in front of The Cookery, a jazz club at the corner of 8th St. & University Place in Manhattan. Bob was making preparations to leave NYC for a two-year work assignment in the American Friends Service Committee’s VISA program, in Appalachia.      
Up until to that impromptu meeting, they didn’t really know each other, but they did have some friends in common from their overlapping years attending the same NYC high school, college and summer camp in the Catskill Mountains.  While Iris and Bob chatted on that street corner, Blanche Evan, Iris’s lifelong dance therapy mentor silently passed them by, mysteriously giving Iris a furtive glance that might have implied some significance that Blanche felt about this fateful meeting.
Iris and Bob then arranged a few dates that summer before Bob left NYC for his AFSC orientation.
Bob vividly remembers how Iris picked him up in her father’s boat-size Cadillac convertible. They continued dating for two years, when Bob periodically visited NYC. In1967 Bob invited Iris to visit him on location in Clairfield, TN.
            
1968 to 1970

Iris and Bob both enrolled in graduate programs at the University Illinois, in Urbana, Champaign. Iris worked towards an MA in Dance and Bob towards an MA in Theater. They initially lived with a host family in Urbana, then rented their first apartment together, directly over Bob’s Chicago cousin Bronna and her husband, Marty's apartment, who were undergrads at the University. Iris’s graduate dance advisor was Beverley Blossom (formerly with the Alwin Nickolais Dance Company); Iris’s other influential dance mentors there included Steve Paxton and Barbara Dilley (formerly members of the Grand Union and Merce Cunningham Dance Co.). Iris also befriended dancer Nancy Topf.                         
A few of Bob's vivid memories:
-Iris made an Asian-style dinner for Steve and Barbara in our tiny apartment, followed by the four of us soulfully dancing in our living room to Sly & the Family Stone.
-Steve Paxton danced nude to Erik Satie’s Gymnopede for Dance students and faculty, in the middle of a garden adjacent to the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
-Iris choreographed and performed in her MA dance concert in May or June 1970.  It was attended by Bob, Bob's cousin Bronna and husband Marty, and Iris’s parents, Barney and Vivian.  Bronna’s endearing comment to Iris after her unusual post-modern performance,  “Iris, you’re weird!” became a running joke between us over the many years of a close friendship with them.
-The director of the U of I Graduate Dance Program was Dr. Margaret Erlanger, who recommended Iris for her first job after graduate school at NYU in New York City.

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Summer of 1969

Iris and Bob both worked at The Timberlake Playhouse in Mount Carroll, Illinois.
Iris choreographed and performed in the musical, “The King and I,” and Bob acted in several productions.
 
1970 to 1985

Iris teaches at NYU's graduate Dance Therapy program. Dr. Pat Rowe, Chairperson of NYU School of Dance & Dance Education, brought Iris on board in 1970. Starting in 1973, Dr. Marcia Leventhal became Director of NYU's Dance Therapy graduate program, initiating a fruitful professional relationship and close friendship between Iris and Marcia. Mimi R. Berger was also a part of the program.
            
1970 to 1973

Iris and Bob moved from Illinois to New Haven, CT. Bob entered a 3 year MFA program in Theater Directing at the Yale School of Drama, while Iris started commuting to NYC to begin her teaching position at NYU. Iris simultaneously began a private Dance Therapy practice in New Haven, where she held sessions with both individual clients and groups. In 1972, Iris choreographed and performed in Bob’s Yale Drama School Cabaret piece An Evening with Erik Satie.
 
May 6, 1973

Iris and Bob were married by Yale University Jewish Chaplain, Rabbi Arnold Wolf, in his small Yale study, attended by by Iris’s Dad & Mom, Barney & Vivian, Bob’s Dad, Morris, friend Rose, and Bob's cousin Bronna with her husband Marty.  Rabbi Wolf was known for his social activism and progressive stances throughout his career as a spiritual & community leader.
 
June 1973

A big wedding party was held in Barney & Vivian's backyard of their home in Brookfield, CT. Many of Iris & Bob’s relatives and friends attended this festive event under a large tent and deck.
 
August 1973

Iris and Bob moved into a railroad flat apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, NYC. Iris continued teaching at NYU, while Bob freelanced as a theater director and acting teacher.
 
Summers of 1972, 1973 & 1978
Iris and Bob both worked in The Williamstown Summer Theater Festival’s Apprentice Program. Bob taught Acting classes and Iris offered Movement and Dance classes.
            
1980 to 1984

Bob taught at Smith College (1981-83) and at Hampshire College (1983-84), while Iris continued to commute from Northampton, MA, to her ongoing job at NYU in NYC.
 
1984

Iris and her three close Blanche Evan-trained dance therapy colleagues: Barbara Melson, Bonnie Bernstein and Ann Krantz, established The Blanche Evan Foundation, whose mission was to carry on the legacy of Blanche Evan’s unique approach to Dance and Movement Therapy.
 
1984 to 1985

Iris and Bob returned to their NYC apartment in the summer of 1984. Their daughter, Sarah was born at The New York Hospital in Manhattan in January of 1985. Iris’s NYU colleagues and friends hosted a baby naming celebration at Marcia’s NYU apartment. This event was also a farewell party for Iris, who departed her teaching role in the NYU program.
 
August 1985

Iris and Bob moved to Lewisburg, PA, where Bob was hired by Bucknell University to teach in the Theater Program, and where Iris established a private dance therapy practice.
 
1985 – 2021
Iris continued to work in Dance Therapy in a freelance capacity over the years, in the US and with some visits abroad to the UK and one to China.  Iris presented numerous workshops and classes for The Naropa Institute in Boulder, CO, Kinections in Rochester, NY, Hope College in Hope, MI, The Froebels Institute at  Roehampton University, London, UK, The Beijing Dance Therapy Institute, in Beijing, China, and at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA.

Iris presented Dance Therapy workshops at the annual American Dance Therapy Association Conferences- often jointly with her Blanche Evan and NYU colleagues. Her interviews and articles were published in various Dance Therapy  journals and books. Iris also maintained contact over the years with her Blanche Evan core group: Barbara Melson, Bonnie Bernstein & Anne Krantz, to plan publishing projects and presentations that would perpetuate the legacy of their mentor. Many of these meeting were held over Zoom. 
Iris thrived within the Bucknell University and Lewisburg communities, discovering great pleasure and fulfillment in: raising her daughter, participating within the Stadler Poetry Center’s lively workshops and readings, beginning two decades of creative collage and assemblage-making, working as a dance therapist with private clients at home, offering occasional workshops and classes for both the Dance and Theater programs at Bucknell, and becoming a committed member & convener of the Feminist Fiction Reading Group. From1999 to 2011, she was the Outreach Coordinator at Bucknell University’s Weis Center for the Performing Arts, where she managed the student engagement and enrichment through artists and creatives who came to the center. Iris delighted in all these varied activities & roles, and developed many deep relationships along the way.
 
April 2, 2023

Iris passed away at The Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg, PA. Iris is survived by her husband, Bob, daughter, Sarah, son-in-law, Ian, and grandson, Oliver.