She showed up—age 59—for an audition for a social dance club, and wanted to leave the moment she understood it was something else. But she was in the group in the corner and she couldn’t figure out how to get to the door, so she stayed almost twenty years.
Bea Wattenberg was an amazing mover, open to trying anything. On our first tour with Dance Exchange, I realized that I hadn’t warned her about the fact that there was only one dressing room for a very mixed company. I went up to her privately and said, “Bea,I have something I need to tell you.” After I quietly relayed the information to her, she smiled with a big sigh of relief and said, “Oh good, I thought you were going to change the choreography.”
Remembering the first time he lifted her, Boris Willis said, “She was so light, but so strong.”
Over the years, Bea danced on rooftops and in empty swimming pools. She let herself be filmed, led workshops and performances at luncheons and synagogues, and did countless press interviews. She was very funny and self-deprecating but always dressed perfectly. She taught the company some choice Yiddish words, which they all used with affection.
She is missed by us all. There is no one more unique.
