Georgette Weisz Amowitz GORCHOFF

Georgette W. Amowitz Gorchoff

Georgette Weisz Amowitz Gorchoff, born at l'hopital Americain de Paris was registered at Paris' American Consulate. Brought up in London and New York City, she graduated from New York's High School of Music and Art and the University of Wisconsin in Madison (with a BA in music). She studied professional dance at Juilliard where her teachers included Martha Graham, Louis Horst and Antony Tudor. In 1953, she accepted a teaching position in Virginia and, in January 1954, she married Dr. J. David Amowitz.

By the 1980s, Georgette had been chairman of the dance departments of the Virginia and National Federations of Music Clubs, a judge for the Virginia Junior Miss Pageant, a board member of the Dance Notation Bureau, listed in Who's Who of American Women, and unanimously elected to Fellowship of the International Council of Kinetography Laban. She'd choreographed for the Virginia Opera Theatre and the Lynchburg Fine Arts Center, taught dance and Labanotation at colleges in Virginia, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and privately. She directed major dance works from their scores and notated the technique of pitching a baseball as well as much of her own choreography. (Her published dances have been registered for copyright by the Library of Congress). By the end of the century, to introduce Labanotation, she developed software for Windows and Macintosh systems. Widowed in 1979, she married Nathaniel Gorchoff on September 4, 1983, and for more than a dozen winters, they circumnavigated the globe. Since 2003, they resided at the Summit. Predeceased by her husbands, she is survived by three children, Michael Amowitz of Alexandria, Steven Amowitz of Charlottesville, and Susan A. Schlossberg of Roanoke, her son-in-law, Neil Schlossberg, stepdaughter Carole Paul of New York City, and grandchildren, David and Daniel Schlossberg, Ari and Zoe Amowitz; her sister, Lillian Nissman and husband, Gerald and their family of Englewood, NJ, and special friends Sally Doyle, Lila Rosenthal and Liz Krebbs.

Funeral services will be held at 4:30 p.m. today at Agudath Sholom Congregation with Rabbi Terry Treseder officiating. Burial will follow at Beth Joseph Sholom Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to: Dance Notation Bureau, 151 W. 30th St. #202, NY, NY 10001 or Agudath Sholom Congregation, 2055 Langhorne Road, Lynchburg, Virginia 24501.

The family would especially like to thank Dr. Dwight Oldham, Lynda Quinn, Shanna Davis, Daphne Pannell, Ethel Goins, and Albert Paige for the wonderful care that they gave Georgette during her illness.

Tharp Funeral Home and Crematory, Lynchburg, is assisting the family, 434-237-9424. Condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.tharpfuneralhome.com.