user: Ilona Copen, a Founder of Dance Competition, Dies at 70

Ilona Copen, a founder of the New York International Ballet Competition and a champion of the exchange of ideas among dance companies around the world, died on Saturday at her home in Manhattan. She was 70.

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Ilona Copen, a founder and executive director of the New York International Ballet Competition, established in 1983.

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The cause was cancer, said her husband, James A. Goldstein.

Born in Brooklyn, Ms. Copen studied dance at the Juilliard School and performed with small modern-dance companies directed by Myra Kinch, Shirley Broughton, Katherine Litz and Jeff Duncan, among other choreographers. Yet her ambition to be a modern dancer was soon eclipsed by a desire to promote dance as a global art.

In 1983 she and Igor Youskevitch, a distinguished premier danseur who had starred with both American Ballet Theater and the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, established the New York International Ballet Competition, which held its first event the next year and has since become a biennial attraction.

Although there have long been worldwide ballet competitions, the New York one was unusual from the outset because of the way Ms. Copen and Mr. Youskevitch sought to make its young participants, between 17 and 24, feel like colleagues, rather than cut-throat rivals. They also introduced an unusual system. Whereas at some competitions, participants can dance what they wish in whatever choreographic version they choose, the New York competition repertory is never announced until after the dancers have arrived in New York. Then they are taught the same three pas de deux, which they must perform in exactly the same versions, thereby allowing a panel of judges to appraise them without having to take into account any personal or choreographic idiosyncrasies.

Ms. Copen was the competition’s executive director and Mr. Youskevitch its artistic director until his death, in 1994, after which Ms. Copen continued on as executive director. She retired last July.

The next artistic cause to which she devoted her energies was the World Dance Alliance, an international forum for the exchange of dance ideas founded in Hong Kong in 1990. Organized on the basis of regions, the Asia Pacific branch was the first to become active. An Americas division came into being in 1993, with Ms. Copen serving as chairwoman of its International Relations Committee.

Ms. Copen was president of the International Dance Committee of the International Theater Institute from 1995 to 2008; she organized the closing ceremony of its 30th World Congress in Tampico, Mexico, in 2004, and produced four celebrations of International Dance Day for Unesco in Paris. She also served on the boards of several dance companies and schools.

In addition to her husband, Ms. Copen is survived by her mother, Frieda Copen Zucker of Manhattan; a brother, Mel Copen of Sedona, Ariz.; a sister, Gennah Copen of Amherst, Mass.; a daughter, Robin Goldstein Fontaine of Manhattan; a son, Seth Copen Goldstein of Pittsburgh; and four grandchildren.

Summary: Ms. Copen was a founder of the New York International Ballet Competition and a champion of the exchange of ideas among dance companies around the world.


Tiger and his missing tooth: Agent says videographer accidentally knocked it out with camera

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy – Tiger Woods has another reason not to like cameras — it cost him a tooth.

Woods made a surprise visit to Italy on Monday to watch girlfriend Lindsey Vonn capture her record 63rd World Cup title. The photo that generated all the buzz was Woods missing his front tooth.

Mark Steinberg, his agent at Excel Sports, explained the missing tooth in an email. He says during a crush of photographers at the awards podium, a media member with a shoulder-mounted video surged toward the stage, turned and hit Woods in the mouth. That's what knocked out the tooth.

He did not say when Woods would have it replaced. Golf's biggest star returns to competition next week in Phoenix, and his smile is sure to produce a stream of shutters from the cameras.

Summary:

assistant: Tiger Woods has another reason not to like cameras —  it cost him a tooth.