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Nancee Heimbecher was born in Denver, Colorado in 1935. She began studying ballet with Russian dancer/ teacher Ivan Novikoff while her family lived in Seattle, Washington. In 1946 the Heimbechers returned to Denver where she studied with Lillian Cushing, one of America's foremost ballet teachers. Nancee started her professional career at age twelve by performing with the Central City and Denver Post Opera Companies. After winning the coveted Cushing Award in 1948, she began teaching dance under Miss Cushing's supervision.

Following high school graduation, Nancee was awarded several scholarships: the Chappell School of Art, University of Denver, the Carnation Company and the Balanchine School of American Ballet. She accepted the Balanchine scholarship and moved to New York City in 1953. In time she became one of the original dancers in the Robert Joffrey Ballet Company and acted as an assistant to its director. In 1957 Nancee joined Radio City Music Hall Ballet Corps and eventually became an assistant choreographer. She stayed with the corps until 1960 when she married Mexican -American composer Ramiro Cortés. Following their marriage, the couple moved to Connecticut where she headed the Silvermine College of Art's Ballet Department. Next she directed Ensemble for Ballet which introduced dance to New York City's public schools. She also owned and operated the Great Neck School of Dance in New York City and became the co-director of the Ballet Etudes Company.

In 1965 she joined a small Los Angeles ballet company and danced in

Barbra Streisand's film Funny Girl. By 1968 she was named the acting director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Monday Evening Concert Series.,She also served as a personal assistant to Igor Stravinsky taking dictation for a year before his death. In 1969 she was named Program Director of the University of Southern California's School of the Performing Arts. Three years later she became the university's director of the preparatory music department and used dance and theater to create U.S.C.'s Community Schools of the Performing Arts.

She moved to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1979 and worked as the director of the Snowbird Institute. During these years, her husband, Ramiro, served as a Composer in Residence at the University of Utah, was a member of the Music Department's faculty and chaired the Composition Department. Four years later, in 1983 Nancee was hired as a consultant to the University of Utah's Music Department. The next year she was appointed chairwoman of the Ballet Department. From 1988 to 1989, she served as Assistant Dean for Development to the University of Utah's College of Fine Arts. During these years, she labored to gain community and legislative support for the university's new dance building, the Alice Sheets Marriott Center for Dance.

Following Ramiro's death in 1984, Nancee married Dr. Ralph R. Hathaway, a biologist at the University of Utah. In the years that followed she served on numerous art committees and has been awarded many honors in Utah and New Mexico. Currently she resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico and works with the area's dance and music communities. At this time, her favorite advisory position is with the Santa Fe Music Board which promotes contemporary music.