Erna Lane

• Primary teachers: Elizabeth Duncan
• Additional teachers: Anita Zahn
• Areas of expertise: Performer, Teacher
• Region: Europe

Erna Lane, 92, Dancer and Artist
Published: July 7, 1996

Erna Lane, a dancer who as a child was one of the first students of Elizabeth Duncan, Isadora Duncan's sister, died on June 28 at Hillcrest Hospital in Pittsfield, Mass. She was 92 and lived in West Stockbridge, Mass.

Miss Lane, who was born in Munich, Germany, began her dance training at the age of 5 at the Elizabeth Duncan School in Darmstadt, and later performed throughout Europe with a group of young women from the school. She made her United States debut as a solo dancer in 1928 in New York City and taught dance to the children of wealthy New York families. Among her pupils were Lillian Rosenberg and Hortense Kooluris.

Miss Lane also began to create assemblages, and by 1963 was exhibiting her artworks in museums that included the Malkasten in Dusseldorf, Germany, the Hammond Museum in North Salem, N.Y., and galleries throughout the Berkshires, where she lived for more than three decades.

She is survived by her daughter, Irina Ohl of Chester, Vt.; four grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

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