Marya Kennett remembered as a woman ahead of her time

By Geri Corey
GOSHEN — It was standing room only at a gathering on Saturday, Aug. 8, at the Marya A. Kennett Dance Centre in Goshen. Family, friends, and present and former students came to pay tribute to a woman who can only be described as incredible: Marya A. Kennett.
Marya Brouillette was born in 1921, the daughter of a sugar maple farmer in Montgomery, Vermont. After a long life, full of joys and challenges, she passed away on May 30, 2018 at the age of 97.
To Marya dance was life itself, more than just movement to music, it was a way of life, one that embodied discipline, hard work and strong moral values — the ethics that she lived by throughout her lifetime and that she passed on to others.
“My mother had the touch. Through experience, she always knew what to do, such as mend last minute costume problems. She was sophisticated, a classic, like the roses that she loved,” said Lee, Marya’s oldest son.
Her early years were lived simply on the farm: getting fresh milk from their own cows, eating homegrown vegetables, pumping fresh clean water, and using a horse and buggy to visit friends and family.
It was her mother, free-spirited Blossom, who lit the spark that ignited Marya to become the person she was. Inspired by her mom’s New England love of independence, hard work and family, Marya often danced as her mom played the piano, but the defining moment came when Blossom brought Marya, at just three years old, to see a Russian ballet. That was it, Marya had said, she knew she had to learn to dance.
Her mother hired a dance instructor who came to their home weekly from Boston, and Marya learned to dance. At her mother’s insistence, she took ballet lessons.
Dance provided Marya with an illustrious career: she traveled to New York City for lessons; attended seminars, learning from renown Russian-born choreographer George Balanchine, founder of the New York Ballet; went on USO tours during the war; worked with popular band leaders Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey and Glenn Miller; worked at clubs like the Coconut Grove and the Copacabana in NYC; danced while Lionel Hampton played the vitaphone; knew young stars like Jerry Lewis and Sammy Davis, Jr; and was on stage with famous singers like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.
“I was never without a job,” she said of the post-war years.
Marya gained fame as having an instinct for helping injured and pain-ridden dancers, and that prompted boxer Evander Holyfield to ask her to join him on the road to guide him with stretching, hoping to keep pain and injuries at a minimum. She toured with Evander “The Real Deal” Holyfield, two-times World Heavyweight Champion, for about 10-years!
On April 6, 1942 Marya wed Walter Kennett, called Buddy by friends and family. Walter’s job offer as a high school science teacher brought the couple to Goshen. He was later named Director of Guidance; a position he held until his early death in 1974.
Wanting to get back to work, Marya slipped into her teaching career by arranging her dining room into a studio in her Orange Ave. home. What began as one day a week soon became two and three days until eventually the demand forced her to move her growing business to the O and W train station in Middletown. In 1978 she purchased the building on Main St. in Goshen, where the popular dance studio is still located. Through the years, thousands of students have passed through her doors, often teaching two or three generations of the same family. Marya A. Kennett went on to teach for over 50-years.
“As a teacher, she was passionate about her students; she was so proud of her students,” said Fred Kennett, Marya’s third son.
After Lee, Marya gave birth to Gary, Freddy, Jocelyn, called Lindy, and Marc. Gary and Lindy have passed away, but Lee, Fred and Marc were on hand at the service to honor their mother.
Fred went on to say that his mother loved ballet; she loved introducing kids to the arts, getting talented kids exposed.
“She was instrumental in giving kids exposure through people she knew in New York City and Boston. Ballet was the focus of her love, but she liked anything artsy—sculptures, paintings, antiques,” he said.
Fred, saying that Marya was an “active, involved mother,” added, “We were crazy kids, boys who went from one antic to another and she survived us!”
Her sons are proud of their mother, highlighting the business that she started and ran. “She started a business in the 50’s when it was hard for women to get loans,” said Fred, explaining that after his father died, her dance studio “took on a seriousness.”
It was more than dance steps that Marya passed onto her students. “She helped shape lives,” said Katie Huddleston, who took lessons at Kennett’s for 15 years. In 1994, Katie danced the part of Clara in “The Nutcracker Suite,” Kennett Dance Centre’s most memorable yearly production.
“She prepared us for what we chose to do through the discipline and respect we learned here. She helped mold us to be better human beings—caring, poised, intelligent, and most importantly, to be independent.”
“My grandmother was ahead of her time,” said granddaughter Kelly Lastrapes, from Virginia. “She was strong and fiercely independent. She lived by the motto ‘You can do it,’ and shared that with everyone — family and the girls in her classes.”
A woman who knew Marya well, Goshen resident and former Village Mayor Marcia Mattheus reminisced about her early years and time spent at the Kennett household:
“I began taking dance lessons with Marya when I was four-years old. I’d go to Orange Ave for my Saturday class and then stay and play with Lee, Marc and Freddy. I remember sitting at the table having baked beans made by Marya’s mom, who I recall was a woman of determination.
“I didn’t have the body of a ballet dancer, but I loved the theater and working with Marya. I got to be ‘Little Miss Mischief,’ the Cowardly Lion, and ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ Marya was demanding and extremely supportive. But that combination gave me determination. Initially I wanted to master the moves because she said I could, but then I learned I must do it for myself—learn to fight for what’s important. How lucky for me to be able to maintain a relationship with Marya and her family all these years.”
Marya not only lived a long life, but one that was fascinating, one formed by her own design. She worked hard and succeeded. Dance brought her pleasure, but it also provided her with the tools to be happy and successful—she learned the value of hard work, good posture, skin care, straight-talking, and she had the compassion to share what she learned was right and that brought her respect and love.
“I will miss her dearly,” said daughter-in-law Cindy Kennett, voicing the sentiment of so many at the memorial service.