Lansing-area dance icon and teacher 'Miss Assiff' dies at 97, remembered as 'ray of light'
EAST LANSING — Theda Assiff-MacGriff taught and inspired generations of dancers.
The mother of two, grandmother of five and icon of the Lansing-area dance community died last week at the age of 97.
"We’d all be so lucky to have the life that she lived," her son Scott MacGriff said.
She's remembered for her elegance on and off the dance floor, her passion for the arts and the way she treated those around her.
"She just was a ray of light," said her daughter Patrice Van Voorhees. "She would walk in somewhere and she would just beam at everybody. And it was just like everybody felt sunshine shining at her shoulders."
The daughter of Lebanese-American immigrants, Assiff-MacGriff learned to drive at 7 years old, learned classical ballet techniques by age 9, her family said, and in 1942 — at 16 years old — graduated from Lansing Central High School.
She then left for New York City, where she became a member of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Corps, her children said, and even founded her own dance company, The Ballet Maniacs. She toured up and down the East Coast, danced in the Miami Latin Quarter and for military troops at USO performances.
Assiff-MacGriff returned to the Lansing area and graduated from Michigan State University in 1949. Following graduation, she opened her first dance studio in a church basement before moving into a building next to East Lansing's People's Church.
Assiff-MacGriff, born in Lansing in 1926, grew up during the Great Depression. Assiff-MacGriff's mother cleaned a dance studio at night so that her daughter could take classes, Van Voorhees said.
Assiff-MacGriff taught dance for 80 years and her students went on to perform in national and international dance companies, in Broadway shows and in films and TV performances.
It's because of that sacrifice that Van Voorhees thinks her mother applied herself so hard.
One of those former students is Mark Ruhala, who now runs a dance studio of his own in the area. He met Assiff-MacGriff when he was a sophomore at East Lansing High School and she was choreographing the school musical.
"Her passion for dance was very visceral," he said. "You could feel it just being around her."
After he graduated high school in 1975, Ruhala said he left for acting school in New York City. His mother and Assiff-MacGriff drove him to the airport, he said.
She was as comfortable with the grace of ballet as she was with the quick, percussive nature of tap dance. Similarly, she moved through life with a blend of elegance and toughness.
"I describe my mom as a steel bar inside a velvet glove," MacGriff said.
She was a strong woman with strong convictions, he explained, but had a very elegant exterior. She treated everybody as though they mattered to her, because they did. She was gentle, he said, but was also strong and tough.
Van Voorhees, carrying on the family tradition, runs a dance studio — The Studio Performing Arts Center in East Lansing — where she has photographs of her mother on the walls.
Assiff-MacGriff may have led her final dance class in 2020, but her presence will remain in Lansing dance studios.
Memorial service and scholarship details
A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Sept. 16 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Lansing. Attendees are encouraged to share a fun story or anecdote about Assiff-MacGriff.
In lieu of flowers, her family asks that donations be made to the Theda Assiff-MacGriff Endowed Scholarship for Excellence in Dance, administered by Lansing Matinee Musicale. Donations can be mailed to Mary Adkins, the nonprofit's treasurer, at 6405 Old River Trail, Lansing, MI 48917. Checks should be marked "Theda Assiff Scholarship."
Contact reporter Matt Mencarini at 517-377-1026 or mjmencarini@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattMencarini.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Theda Assiff-MacGriff, longtime Lansing area dance teacher, dies at 97
