Naomi S. Mindlin, professional dancer, creative choreographer, teacher, writer, and editor, has died at 73

Naomi S. Mindlin, 73, of Langhorne, a professional dancer, creative choreographer, teacher, editor, and writer, died Monday, Aug. 22, of glioblastoma at Penn Medicine Rittenhouse.

Ever active and creative, Ms. Mindlin began dancing as a child in the 1950s and went on to tour the world in the early 1980s as a professional dancer with the acclaimed José Limón Dance Company of New York. She applied simply to be an extra with the cutting-edge modern dance company, was instead invited to join as a member in 1980, and spent the next two years performing her way across the United States, Canada, Brazil, Spain, and France.

Earlier, she danced with smaller companies in New York. Later, she performed often at the Painted Bride Art Center, Temple University’s Conwell Dance Theater, Drexel University’s Mandell Theater, and elsewhere in Philadelphia and New York. Her last major dance role was a 2009 performance of her daughter’s senior-year production at the University of Utah.

“She was an incandescent performer who conveyed her spiritual depth with technical acuity,” her family said in a tribute. Her husband, Stephen Perloff, said: “Even in a group of dancers you couldn’t take your eyes off her. She was that stunning. … She was breathtaking.”

Ms. Mindlin settled in Langhorne with her husband in 1983, taught dance at the University of the Arts and other schools and venues, and was associate director for the Dance Conduit modern dance company in Philadelphia. She also choreographed performances that were inspired by her own experiences regarding the Holocaust, public and personal isolation, and motherhood.

She organized dance workshops and earned a development grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts and fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. “It was cool to see how committed she was to learning and growth throughout her life,” said her daughter Cressa.

An avid reader, tireless researcher, and fastidious editor, Ms. Mindlin did extensive examinations of noteworthy dancers and edited many publications and books, including 1998′s Doris Humphrey: A Centennial Issue and The Vision of Modern Dance: In the Words of Its Creators. She also wrote articles and reviewed performances in the 1980s and ’90s for the Bucks County Courier Times, Dance Notation Journal, Photo Review, and other publications.

In a 1991 opinion piece for the Daily News, Ms. Mindlin warned against the diminishing funding of local dance companies and reminded readers of “the power of the dance, its vitality and the strength of its integrations into our definition of ourselves as a community.”

Her family said: “Naomi’s life was in her dances, and her dancing was her life.”

Born Dec. 2, 1948, Naomi Susan Mindlin grew up in Bethlehem, earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Brandeis University in Massachusetts in 1970, and worked for a time as a research assistant in psycholinguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But she couldn’t stop dancing, so she went to New York, got a master’s degree in dance from New York University’s Gallatin School, and spent much of the 1970s training with dance innovators such as Marjorie Mussman, Maggie Black, Margaret Beals, and Bertram Ross. After touring with the Limón company, she met Perloff, a photographer and editor, at the wedding of her former boyfriend, and they married in 1985.

The couple lived in Langhorne, had daughters Cressa and Emma, and Ms. Mindlin commuted to New York and Philadelphia to perform and teach. She became a certified Pilates instructor in 2003, and helped found Tzedek v’Shalom Reconstructionist synagogue in Newtown, Bucks County.

Friendly, eclectic in her interests, and attentive to detail in whatever she did, Ms. Mindlin’s father was a judge, and she inherited his “justice gene,” her daughter, Cressa, said. She enjoyed knitting and created sweaters, slippers, mittens, baby hats, and booties for friends and family.

She and her husband had their own special handshake to celebrate Phillies victories, and her family benefited from her unwavering strength of character. “When she supported you, she supported you the way you needed it, not the way she thought you needed it,” said her daughter Emma. “She just loved you and made space for you to be your whole self.”

Her daughter Cressa said: “That was part of her magic.”

In addition to her husband and daughters, Ms. Mindlin is survived by a brother and other relatives.

Services were Aug. 24.

Donations in her name may be made to Planned Parenthood, Attn. Online Services, P.O. Box 97166, Washington, D.C., 20090; the American Civil Liberties Union, 9450 SW Gemini Dr., PMB 62825, Beaverton, Ore. 97008; and the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10023.