Michael Sanders, 52, ballet teacher

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Staff Writer

Michael Sanders, a dancer, choreographer and teacher on the Hawai'i dance scene, died July 26 of a heart attack at his home. He was 52.

He taught at the Queen Emma Ballet, where his wife, Eve Walstrum Sanders, is director. They met when both were members of the Netherlands Dance Theatre, and married in 1987.

"He was a great guy, with just the nicest demeanor, and he was very positive about everything," said Ballet Hawai'i executive director Steve Knox, with whom Sanders worked a decade ago. "He had a great dance background, but a Southern accent — something you wouldn't expect from a ballet dancer."

Sanders was born in Oklahoma and started dancing at 9, taking on ballet at 15. He studied ballet at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he became a founding member of the North Carolina Dance Theatre. He later had a 12-year association with the Netherlands Dance Theatre.

Sanders also choreographed for Dances We Dance and the University of Hawai'i-Manoa Dance Theatre.

Colleagues and students will hold a celebration of Sanders' life from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the UH Campus Center Ballroom. Participating performers will include dancers Rachel Berman, Peter Rockford, Kanoe Miller, Marie Takazawa and Paul Maley and singer Loretta Ables Sayre. Others interested in participating should call the Queen Emma Ballet at 735-6553.

Besides his wife, Sanders is survived by his mother, Betty Zoe Sanders of Oklahoma.