Katharyn Horne

Katharyn Horne, 92 of Charlotte, North Carolina, took her final bow on February 17, 2025, at her home surrounded by family. 

Born June 20, 1932, in Fort Worth, Texas, daughter of William Sullivan and Catherine (Collie) Horn. Originally Patricia Catherine Horn, she later changed her name to Katharyn Horne to have a more unique stage name. 

From a young age Katharyn was obsessed with dance. She lived and breathed ballet. Her favorite childhood saying was, “I can do it all by myself”. When she moved to New York City she made that saying come true and never looked back.At age 3 she began taking dance classes.  In high school she performed locally with Fort Worth Civic Opera. 

 She graduated from Paschal High School in Fort Worth in 1948. As a compromise with her parents, she went to Texas Christian University for one year in exchange for support living her first year in New York. 

Upon moving to New York in 1949/1950 she joined Ballet Theatre, now American Ballet Theatre, where she continued her ballet training with company teachers Margaret Craske and Anthony Tudor. After the birth of her first child Katharyn joined the Metropolitan Opera Ballet as principal dancer. There, between 1957 and 1964, she found a great love of opera and danced in many operas alongside many well-known singers of the time. She also received great acclaim for her performances in Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo and Fall River Legend, even appearing on a record cover of the music from Rodeo by Aaron Copland.  

She performed for one year (1964-1965) with The Finnish National Ballet alongside her second husband, a Finnish national. Upon returning stateside in 1965 Katharyn was ballerina, ballet mistress and co-director of the Manhattan Festival Ballet, with longtime friends and fellow dancers, Robert Ossorio and Ron Sequoio. Her long-time teacher, Miss Craske, taught a daily class for the company. Miss Craske’s approach to the Cecchetti method of training was adopted by the company. As ballet mistress Katharyn once said, “We wish to develop a style all our own. While we seek honest, disciplined dancing, we do not wish our performers to be impersonal. Rather, we believe in the personality of each dancer, individually, as well as collectively, and our choice of repertoire is partly based on the desire to allow each dancer to display his talents to the best possible advantage.” 

In 1969 she moved with her family to Sweden and performed with Sweden’s Malmö Stadsteatre, serving as both ballerina and principal company teacher until returning to the states in 1975. Back in the States again the family moved to Omaha, Nebraska starting a new chapter. There she, along with her husband, served as co-artistic director, principal dancer, ballet mistress, teacher, and company costume designer for Omaha Ballet until 1980.  

After her divorce she moved to Charlotte, NC to become Artistic director for Dance Charlotte in 1981. Later she began teaching at Central Piedmont Community College. Joining the faculty full-time in 1986, she taught there for the remainder of her career - over 30 years. Serving as instructor, Co-director, and choreographer for the resident student company, Dance Central, from 1983 to 2004, re-staging numerous classic ballets for the company as well as creating her own works. She was enormously proud to have created a dance appreciation class which is still part of the syllabus at CPCC. 

Though she retired in 2004 she continued to teach classes and put together performances there until 2017.  

While Katharyn officially retired from performing in 1978, she was still noted to have donned her pointe shoes on occasion. Her last professional performance as a principal dancer was in 1983 aged fifty-one, when she performed Winds Bride in New York City. Created for her in 1963 by Ron Sequoio who also danced in the ballet for two people it became her favorite ballet. On another occasion in 1994 when then President Clinton visited CPCC in Charlotte, Dance Central was asked to put on a short performance. A segment of Les Sylphides was chosen. One dancer however was out of town. Katharyn, in her sixties, put on a pair of point shoes and costume and joined the dancers. According to a colleague “I was not 20 feet from the stage, and once they started – I could not tell which dancer she was! She blended so perfectly into the corps – I was and still am amazed by it! It was a feat of true artistry, and the mark of a true professional. It was magic in its purest form.” 

Though Katharyn performed and made guest appearances with numerous companies across the United States and world, she came to view her role as teacher and mentor as a special one. Teaching her craft to the next generation of dancers and teachers became a mission for her. In her role as teacher, she touched the lives of countless aspiring dancers. She believed that dance was a lifeforce that everyone should experience and many of her students agreed. Several went on to have careers in dance but many more did not, instead crediting her with allowing them to do what they loved, dancing and performing. Even her Dance History and Dance Appreciation students were expected to learn a dance as part of their class.  

Katharyn took many people under her wings, mentoring them, even considering them her own children. They often felt similarly about her. One such person listed her as the mother of the groom at his wedding and she, at 92, was able to share a mother son dance with him. 

She touched countless hearts and souls of dancers, students and people across the world. She will be missed. As one student stated, “I’m sad that she is gone, but take comfort knowing that she can dance again, a Sylph with real wings.”She is survived by her children Collie (Dan) Benes, Kirsi Enckell (David Bristol), granddaughter Ana Bristol, sister Lucille Dubuis, and numerous nieces and nephews and countless students she considered family. Preceded in death by parents William and Catherine Horn, brother William “Bill” Horn, nephew Eric Horn, and former husbands Cameron MacCardell and Thomas Enckell. 

A celebration of life is being organized for a later date. 

In lieu of flowers consider donating to The Patrice Burnside Award Endowed Scholarship at Central Piedmont Community College which Katharyn started.  Alternatively donate to your favorite local arts organization, public broadcasting station, or public library all of which she loved.