Dorothy B. Nesbitt

Dorothy Buckeridge Nesbitt "Buckie" Dorothy Buckeridge Nesbitt, 91, of Wrightsville Beach, died Tuesday, February 4, 2014, at Davis Health Care Center. Dorothy was born April 2, 1922 in Port Huron, MI, daughter of the late Arthur Bielman Buckeridge and Eleanor Ludlow Buckeridge. Her husband, Joseph Gordon Nesbitt, preceded her in death in 2008. In 1937, she entered the School of the American Ballet, where she came in touch with such dance figures as Lincoln Kirstein, George Balanchine and Sergei Grigoriev, the original rehearsal master for the Ballet Russes. As a young ballerina, Nesbitt had toured Canada, Mexico and Latin America from 1941 to 1945 with the Original Ballet Russe company, a spin-off of the original Ballet Russes founded by Sergei Diaghilev and continued by many of his assistants. Active in the community, Dorothy Nesbitt taught dance classes for many years at the Community Arts Center in downtown Wilmington. In 1966, Look magazine published a photograph of one of her desegregated children's dance classes. Dorothy introduced dance programs to Wilmington housing complexes under the aegis of the city's recreation department and to New Hanover County public schools. She also taught dance classes through the Wrightsville Beach Parks and Recreation Department, taught at the old Wilmington College and choreographed productions for the Thalian Association and other theater groups. For many years, she was the director of Wilmington's Community Arts Center, where she desegregated classes years ahead of the county school system. She worked with the former Wilmington Civic Ballet and was a longtime member of the board of the former Lower Cape Fear Council for the Arts. Dorothy staged retrospectives of her work in 1984 and 1988 at Thalian Hall. A lifelong student, she obtained her Masters Degree of Fine Arts from UNCW in 2002 at the age of 80. She was very well known for her letters to the editor in the local Wilmington Star News. She is survived by her two daughters, Diane Thomas and husband, David Pryse Thomas, Jr., of Wilmington, and Pamela Nesbitt of New York City, NY; two grandsons, Joseph Pryse Thomas and wife, Nia Rose, and David Pryse Thomas, III and Gwen Mayer, all of Wilmington; and two sisters, Joanne Booth of Portland, ME, and Barbara Bacharach of Memphis, TN. The family will receive friends from 4pm to 6pm Sunday, February 9, 2014, at Andrews Market Street Chapel. Friends are encouraged to attend the graveside memorial service at 11am Monday, February 10, 2014, at Oakdale Cemetery with Rev. Jay Sidebotham officiating. In lieu of flowers, contributions in Dorothy's memory may be made to Elderhaus, 1950 Amphitheater Drive, Wilmington, NC 28401.