GRACE MACHANIC

MACHANIC GRACE MANLY MACHANIC Alexandria, VA. Ballet teacher and choreographer, devoted mother, inspiration, mentor and dear friend to countless many died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism in her home on Thursday, August 17, 2017. She was 81.

Grace Wishart Manly was born January 19, 1936, in Lynchburg, VA, where her lifelong love of dance began at the Floyd Ward School of Dancing. Her family moved to Washington, DC in 1950 where she continued her ballet studies at the Washington School of Ballet and graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in 1954. When she was 17, she auditioned to appear with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in a local performance and joined as an apprentice with the company before a knee injury ended her professional aspirations. She attended Madison College, now James Madison University, and graduated in 1958 with a BS in Education. After college, she taught English at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, MD, and was active in their theater and dance program. Grace married her husband, real estate developer Roger Machanic, in 1963 and then settled and remained for over 50 years in Old Town, Alexandria, VA, where they raised their two children, Bruce and Laura.

She opened her ballet school, School for Swans, in 1975 and taught classical ballet, tap and creative movement, graduating more than 3,000 "swans" over the past 42 years. The School's annual recitals became celebrated local events that packed the house with parents, grandparents, siblings and local press. She was also a choreographer to countless shows at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, in addition to serving as choreographer for Bishop Ireton High School's annual theater production for the past 12 years, often working hand in hand with her devoted friend and director Frank Shutts. In 2016, her choreography for BI was performed at The Cappies, The Tony Awards-equivalent for high school theatre, at the Kennedy Center where she and Frank had the opportunity to sit in the President's box, a special moment she dutifully reported to her kids via selfies. She won the WATCH choreography award for her work on Little Theatre's production of Spamalot and numerous other outstanding choreography awards for shows including Hair, Forever Plaid and Das Barbecu.

Grace herself performed in numerous community theater productions at venues throughout Northern Virginia during her lifetime. At her alma mater, The Grace Manly Machanic Green Room at the main theater of the JMU's Forbes Center for the Performing Arts was dedicated to Grace in 2011.

Grace did her best to spread her love of ballet and theater to her family, teaching her daughter Laura and later her granddaughter Kathryn ballet at her School for Swans, once recruiting her Wall Street-bound son Bruce to perform in Li'l Abner, and frequently subjecting her businessman husband Roger to many a boisterous late-night cast party in their Old Town, Alexandria home. Family lore has it that Roger was once found fast asleep in his bed under a pile of cast members' coats. Grandson Tyler was the only one to elude Grace's passion.

Grace had a life-long love of sailing, and old family pictures show her as a very young child strapped to the mast while her parents sailed. In her forties, she became enamored of the Windjammer Cruises in the Caribbean and sailed repeatedly when her busy ballet schedule permitted time away. For most of the past 30 summers, she attended sailing camp at Linekin Bay Resort in Boothbay Harbor, ME, in later years taking her family of 10 to instill a love of sailing in her children and grandchildren. Grace's love of the water and sailing eventually led to the family's purchase of a second home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland; she loved to host family, friends, and reunions of all types, first in their home in Oxford and later on Peachblossom Creek in Easton.

Grace was extremely proud of her grandfather's role in helping invent the airplane. Charles Matthews Manly was the lead engineer of Secretary of the Smithsonian Samuel Pierpont Langley's effort to achieve human flight. Grace's grandfather also manned their first aircraft, the Grand Aerodrome, which was commissioned by the U.S. Military. The plane made two attempts at flight, twice crashing into the Potomac River, the second time only nine days before the Wright Brothers made their history-making "first flight." The plane remains on display at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Manly was instrumental in the invention of the Manly-Balzer rotary airplane engine, the first purpose-designed aircraft engine. Grace, with the assistance of aviation writer and filmmaker Paul Glenshaw, spent five years from 2007-2012 working to archive and document Charles Manly's original papers, many of which had been left to him by Langley himself, and then later to Grace.

Grace is survived by her son, Bruce Machanic, and his wife, Susan Redding Machanic of Arlington, VA; daughter, Laura Machanic, and her husband, Tom Dabney, of Alexandria, VA; grandchildren, Kathryn R. Machanic and Tyler R. Machanic; step-grandchildren, Emory Dabney and Steven Dabney; sister, Trammell Maury of Kensington, MD; and numerous devoted cousins, nieces, nephews and treasured friends from every chapter of her life. She was preceded in death by her husband, Roger Machanic, in 2016.

A memorial service and reception will be held on Thursday, October 5 at 3 p.m. at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Alexandria. A special "Encore for Grace" tribute performance will follow at 6 p.m. at The Little Theatre.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to The Little Theatre of Alexandria (LTA), the oldest award-winning theater in the Washington metro area and one of the few community theaters in the country with its own building. Along with her School for Swans ballet studio, LTA was one of Grace's favorite "causes" and places to be.

Grace was an extraordinary person who gave of herself, her time and her talent to everyone and everything she undertook. She impacted the lives of literally thousands of people through her work that spanned her entire life. She was deeply loved and will be profoundly missed but remembered always by many.