Joel, Lydia

Lydia Joel was born Lydia Tarnower on July 27, 1914 in New York City. Her father Abraham Tarnower, a Russian Jew, immigrated to New York in 1906 from Warsaw, Poland. Her mother was the former Helen Mandel. Joel graduated from New York University with a bachelor's degree in English. She also attended summer sessions at Cornell University.

Lydia Joel studied ballet at the School of American Ballet, as well as studying modern dance with Harald Kreutzberg and Hanya Holm. At Bennington in 1937, Joel danced in the premier of Trend Hanya Holm's depiction of social conflicts. In that same year she appeared in Max Reinhardt's production of The Eternal Road .

...