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 .

In 1938 Joel moved to Texas to begin teaching at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, she also taught at Southern Methodist University in Dallas from 1938 to 1944. During this time Joel also directed her own dance company.

Joel's first husband Gerhard Joel, was a conductor for the initial touring company of Oklahoma . After he died in 1946, she retained his name as her professional name. In 1953, she married Edwin Miller. He was the entertainment editor of Seventeen magazine. The Millers had two children, Eric and Diana (Leslie). Diana died in 1972.

Joel joined the staff of Dance Magazine in 1947 in the advertising department. By the time she left in 1969; she was Editor-in-Chief of the magazine. During her tenure the staff increased from 4 to 15 and the circulation had more than doubled.

In 1973, Lydia Joel began a teaching career at High School for the Performing Arts. Joel was teacher, Dance Department chairwoman and eventually vice principal. She produced the school's annual concerts, taught both in the classroom and studio, and was instrumental in arranging a performance by several dance students at the Spoleto Festival in Italy in 1982. The character of "Lydia Grant" played by Debbie Allen, in both the movie and television series Fame was based upon Lydia Joel.

Upon her retirement from High School for Performing Arts, Joel began an ambitious project of bringing an awareness of dance as a reflection of history. Dance Diary was proposed as a television series based on an awareness of dance as a reflection of history. Although scripts were written, research done, talent hired and grants awarded, the series never aired.

Lydia Joel died on May 26, 1992.

From the guide to the Lydia Joel papers, 1906-1993, 1973-1993, (The New York Public Library. Jerome Robbins Dance Division.)