Balletomane left legacy of excellence for dancers
By Joy Wallace Dickinson | Sentinel Staff Writer

Got favorite holiday traditions? Mine include spinning selections from Elvis' original Christmas album, catching at least one scene of It's a Wonderful Life -- the one where Jimmy Stewart yells "Zuzu's petals!" -- and getting to a performance of The Nutcracker ballet.

That's right. We'll pass on those endless holiday football games (not that there's anything wrong with that). We'll be ready for a good pas de deux.

Many folks who spent youthful years in Central Florida have Edith Royal to thank for their appreciation of ballet.

When Royal died in 1996 at 77, Sentinel dance critic Diane Hubbard Burns deemed her "the woman who set Central Florida dancing" in the paper's obituary.

"To me she was the mother of dance in Florida," Kip Watson, director of the Osceola Center for the Arts, said in 1996.

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