a year ago
45
10
Posted On: May 31st 2025, 08:10 pm
This was posted on Facebook a few weeks ago. I forgot to post it here and I know some close friends are only on IG now:
Charmaine Lee Piantadosi, 77, of Washington, Va., died at home April 7, with her family at her side.
Dancer, teacher, healer, loving wife and mother, voracious reader, music appreciator, nature lover and friend to all God’s creatures great and small (but especially dogs), Charmaine was mostly bed-bound since 2019, when a massive heart attack robbed her of breath — but not of life, or joy, or wonder, or the focused, loving presence she maintained until the end.
Born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, to Reginald and Marie Lee, Charmaine showed an early interest in dance, starting formal lessons at the age of three. By the time she reached her teens, she was a professional ballet soloist who performed with three of the four South African state ballet companies, traveling the country before joining the British company Ballet Rambert in London. At London’s Royal Academy of Dance and in Lesotho, South Africa and Washington, D.C., Charmaine studied ballet, modern, jazz, tap, Spanish, belly dancing, African, classical Greek and other styles.
In the 1970s, Charmaine’s interests increasingly turned toward the healing arts — specifically Polarity Therapy, a hybrid of Indian yogic traditions, Eastern martial and healing arts and Western holistic approaches to personal wellness. At this point, the healing arts were as much a professional study as a personal need for Charmaine. As she found herself increasingly at odds with South Africa’s Apartheid-era politics and policies, Charmaine was eventually able to move with her then five-year-old son to London, where she was granted refugee status, and later to Washington, D.C., and U.S. citizenship.
Charmaine is predeceased by her parents, and by her elder sister, Mel (Marie) and brother-in-law, Colin. She is survived by her son, Luke Christopher (from an earlier marriage to Harry Christopher), and by her husband, Roger.
The family plans a memorial service/celebration of life later in the spring, or early summer.
Charmaine Lee Piantadosi, 77, of Washington, Va., died at home April 7, with her family at her side.
Dancer, teacher, healer, loving wife and mother, voracious reader, music appreciator, nature lover and friend to all God’s creatures great and small (but especially dogs), Charmaine was mostly bed-bound since 2019, when a massive heart attack robbed her of breath — but not of life, or joy, or wonder, or the focused, loving presence she maintained until the end.
Born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, to Reginald and Marie Lee, Charmaine showed an early interest in dance, starting formal lessons at the age of three. By the time she reached her teens, she was a professional ballet soloist who performed with three of the four South African state ballet companies, traveling the country before joining the British company Ballet Rambert in London. At London’s Royal Academy of Dance and in Lesotho, South Africa and Washington, D.C., Charmaine studied ballet, modern, jazz, tap, Spanish, belly dancing, African, classical Greek and other styles.
In the 1970s, Charmaine’s interests increasingly turned toward the healing arts — specifically Polarity Therapy, a hybrid of Indian yogic traditions, Eastern martial and healing arts and Western holistic approaches to personal wellness. At this point, the healing arts were as much a professional study as a personal need for Charmaine. As she found herself increasingly at odds with South Africa’s Apartheid-era politics and policies, Charmaine was eventually able to move with her then five-year-old son to London, where she was granted refugee status, and later to Washington, D.C., and U.S. citizenship.
Charmaine is predeceased by her parents, and by her elder sister, Mel (Marie) and brother-in-law, Colin. She is survived by her son, Luke Christopher (from an earlier marriage to Harry Christopher), and by her husband, Roger.
The family plans a memorial service/celebration of life later in the spring, or early summer.
Comments (10)
10 months agomarzaeu
Oh I just saw this. I am terribly sorry for your loss. Sending love and hugs. 🤗❤️❌⭕️
a year agojeffkingwdc
What a great picture and exactly how I remember the amazing woman I met in elementary school and was like a second mom to me. I love you brother, she will be missed by any and all that ever met her,as she was a force of nature. But as you said, your mom is not a stationary, and I know she is dancing in heaven now.
a year agokats_fun_places
Luke, I am so sad for you. She was very young to have had a heart attack and then passing later. My condolences to you and your family. Hugs from afar.
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