Gayle Parmelee

Gayle Parmelee, Co-Coordinator of the Loyola Ballet Program and former Director of the Loyola Ballet (1978-1999), began her professional dance career in the New Orleans Opera Ballet. In New York, Ms. Parmelee appeared on Broadway in Oklahoma! and Silk Stockings, and was a June Taylor Dancer on the Jackie Gleason television show. While studying at both the Ballets Russes and the American Ballet Theatre schools, she also performed in several concert ballet groups.

Returning to the South, Miss Parmelee directed and choreographed for the Louisiana Ballet, the Jackson Ballet and the Savannah Ballet before joining Loyola’s faculty in the fall of 1978. For 21 years she trained many young men and women, including Karen Beck Zollinger, Cheryl O’Sullivan, and Laura Zambrano, in the art of dance through the university’s preparatory and repertory ballet programs. A large percentage of students who obtained a ballet minor from Loyola are professional dancers, teachers and directors. Miss Parmelee skillfully built a ballet program based on the Vaganova Russian syllabus, something many people thought was impossible to do in the United States.

Miss Parmelee retired from Loyola University in the spring of 1999, after having directed 42 consecutive productions for the Loyola Ballet. As the Coordinator of the Loyola Preparatory Ballet Program, her influence on the art of dance will endure for many years to come.