New Orleans dance school founder Lorraine Petit dies at 80 Times Picayune August 27, 2009 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Lorraine Kelly Petit, a first-grade teacher whose passion for dance led her to establish a dance school and lead it for more than a half-century, died Saturday at her New Orleans home. She was 80. A lifelong New Orleanian who graduated from Dillard University, Mrs. Petit taught first grade at Mary Dora Coghill Elementary School in Pontchartrain Park for 27 years, until she retired in 1986. In addition to teaching, Mrs. Petit exercised her artistic bent by directing programs in which students exhibited their art, played instruments and danced. In 1950, she founded the Kelly School of Dance. "She loved children, really, and this was another way to enhance their lives, " said her daughter, Adrianne Petit Mitchell, who oversees the school's operations. Hundreds of children have studied at the school, Mitchell said, and alumni have gone on to work with such renowned choreographers as Alvin Ailey and Twyla Tharp. From the beginning, nothing stopped Mrs. Petit from providing the best possible opportunities in dance education, Mitchell said, even if it meant defying local convention. In the early 1960s, when segregation was still the norm, Mrs. Petit, an African-American, registered herself and her two adolescent daughters for a local meeting of a national dance organization so they could attend workshops and master classes. When the three of them showed up, flustered organizers tried to send them away, saying they must be in the wrong place, Mitchell said. Anticipating such a brush-off, Mrs. Petit stepped forward. "My mom pulled out her wallet, and there was a (membership) card she had received from the national office," Mitchell said. "She said, 'I am a member,' and they had no recourse but to let us participate. We've been doing it ever since." Because Mitchell, her sister and her mother were the only black participants, "we definitely felt the pressure, " Mitchell said, "but once the people got over the initial shock, they were fairly decent." "We were definitely groundbreaking, " Mitchell said. "Had my mother been of a different personality, she might have turned around, but she was not to be deterred." Kelly School of Dance in eastern New Orleans, which will observe its 60th anniversary in June, has about 125 students, and they compete regularly in contests throughout the country, said Mitchell, a devotee of tap dancing. "We're often the only black school participating, " she said. The school's motto, which Mrs. Petit coined, is "A school whose reputation is being built by performance." Besides Mitchell, survivors include her husband, Alvin Joseph Petit; another daughter, Dr. Valerie Petit Wilson of Cranston, R.I.; a brother, Cyril G. Kelly Jr. of New Orleans and Austin, Texas; and four grandchildren. A Mass will be said Saturday at 11 a.m. at St. Maria Goretti Church, 7300 Crowder Blvd. Visitation will start at 9 a.m. Burial will be in Mount Olivet Cemetery, 4000 Norman Mayer Ave. Rhodes Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.