| September 1, 1942 – August 27, 2026 |
| We are all saddened at the passing of Mariel Louise McEwen last week from a long fight with cancer. She was a dear friend and colleague. This past April, I received a call from her asking me to write a tribute/obit when she passed. This is so typical of Mariel, always planning and anticipating. She also did not want to burden anyone. But, given her independent spirit and enthusiasm for life, it is hard to imagine her ever being a burden. She was one of my biggest fans and I owe her a great deal for pushing me to document our educational workshops. Her time recording the classes was mostly contributed until we could afford to give her a fee. She always encouraged me when I was down. Her creative mind quickly solved problems and her optimism never wavered. My only regret is that we did not finish our collaboration, Harmony of the Spheres, due to her illness in 2017 followed by Covid and then a return of bad health.https://www.marielmcewan.com/harmony-of-the-spheres |
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When I met Mariel, she was living in Los Angeles, California and was a freelance writer, director, and editor specializing in dance choreographed for the camera. Her dance camera videos were screened in national and international Dance Camera Festivals including Lincoln Center in New York and venues in Europe, South America and Asia. Her video Pilgrimage won the “Filmmaker of the Year Gold Award” at an International Indonesian Film Festival in 2015. Mariel came into my life in 2012 as one of our students at The New York Baroque Dance Company summer workshop in Santa Barbara, California. She participated in the classes but soon offered to video and photograph final class presentations. She became the videographer for our summer workshops in Historical Dance which continued through 2017 and only ended because of her illness. Documenting my work and that of guest artists invited to the workshop, Mariel had compiled more than 60 videos on a Vimeo dance channel she created for us. We will all be forever grateful to her for creating these documentary and educational videos which were a rare occurrence at the time. She was truly a pioneer in creating this important online collection visited by many dance teachers internationally. Link to vimeo channel beginning with Mariel’s work: https://vimeo.com/channels/nybaroquedancesbhd/page:4 Banquets and Balls https://vimeo.com/141741784 Medea recording at NYPL: https://www.nypl.org/research/research-catalog/bib/b15294393 Mariel had always been interested in historical dance since her studies in college with Sandra Noll Hammond. She also worked with her friend, Regine Astier. Mariel’s talent in costume design and construction was a major asset. Her active dancing career had already concluded before I met her and I apologize for not being able to include more information. With no internet or smart phones in the 1960’s through the 1970’s and 80’s, this period is not as well documented as the next century. |
 In her spare time Mariel enjoyed sewing costumes for her 3-foot-tall doll. This was actually very historical as dolls were the “models” of their day for the latest fashions. Many were mailed from Paris to clients in England and helped the clients to choose which dress to order.In addition to her work with the NYBDC, Mariel’s strength was as an artistic collaborator, bringing stories to life in film and video. Niu Niu’s Story and Against the Dark of Night were created in collaboration with Jia Wu from Shanghai, China. They also co-instructed a Dance Camera Workshop for graduate and undergraduates at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California for 3 years ending in February 2018. Her film studies began in 1988 when Mariel moved to Los Angeles to attend the American Film Institute as a Producing Fellow. After graduating she worked for the film production companies Jones Inter-Cable and Mitsubishi. From 2004-2006 she worked at Sparkhill creating DVD bonus documentaries for the Warner’s and Paramount Studio for the re-release of classic films such as The Thin Man Collection for Warner’s Home Video and a series of documentaries for seven John Wayne films for Batjac Productions and Paramount Home Video which included The High and the Mighty, Island in the Sky, Hondo, McLintock, The Track of the Cat and Seven Men from Now. While living in Sun Valley, Idaho, she worked with the Footlight Dance Centre to create an original three-act ballet based on the book Bijou, Bonbon & Beau, the Kittens Who Danced for Degas by Joan Sweeney. For the production, she produced animated slides that were used as projections featuring French Impressionistic paintings of the streets of Paris, Degas’ paintings of ballerinas and an animated theatre of the Paris Opera. As a dancer, Mariel was interested in many dance styles. She was a student of both folk and classical Japanese Dance and began her earliest studies as a young student at UCLA with the Bugaku master, Suenobu Togi. In 1999 she became a member of the folk-dance group Hoshun Kai taught by Hoshun sensei Kimi Kawamura. It is a branch of the Nippon Minyo Kenkuyo Kai based in Nagoya, Japan, led by Kachi Hosin sensei. She studied classical Japanese dance for five years with Dianne Fukuwa of the Fujima Seiyumi Kai (school) Returning once again in 2009 to UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures Mariel participated in classes conducted by the Japanese dancers Eiko and Koma. Mariel was a recipient of two grants from the California Council for the Humanities. The first grant assisted her in the research and production of Reconcile. This documentary explored the lives of three children of different ethnic and political backgrounds, growing up and surviving in Nazi Germany during WW II. In the post-war era, all three emigrated to the US to attend universities to begin the process of adapting themselves to new political realities and relationships. This hour-long work was based on the best-selling book, An Uncommon Friendship by Frederick Tubach and Bernie Rosner. Reconcile was screened at film festivals and at many community discussion groups in Southern and Northern California. The second grant supported the staging of her original theatre piece Love’s Wild Desire at the California State University in Los Angeles. A mixed media presentation based on 18th-century poetry with music of love, seduction, and marriage, the show was first performed at the Mark Taper Auditorium at the main branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. In August 2011, it was presented by the American High School Theater Festival at the Edinburgh International Fringe Theater Festival. In February 2012 it was presented as a Valentine Day special event and fundraiser for the Ridgecrest Branch of the Kern County Library sponsored by the Spring Hill Suites by Marriott. I have read the script for this work and would welcome the opportunity to stage the piece on the NYBDC. |
 Mariel at work… In conclusion, Mariel was a free spirit. This short video shows her enjoying what she loved so much, dance. https://vimeo.com/742492122 5 minutes and 30 seconds in, Mariel is in purple and is an anonymous “extra” fully enjoying life. As comments and articles appear I will add them to this article which will be posted on our website, https://nybaroquedance.org/ Many thanks to Mariel’s two sons, Mark and Chris Gillespie, who have kept in communication these past months. Mariel was very proud of you. Official obituary: https://www.legacy.com/legacy/mariel-mcewan |
The New York Baroque Dance Co. 