Founder of W.H. dance school, June Loesch, dies at 94

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June A. Loesch, a former Radio City Rockette and the founder of the June Claire School of Dance in West Hempstead and three other locations, who taught thousands of people to dance, died last week. She was 94.

Loesch was born in Queens. Shortly after graduating from John Adams High School in Ozone Park, she was accepted as a Gae Foster Roxyette, and soon afterward she became a Radio City Rockette. She danced with the troupe for several years, until she married a military officer in 1945.

She traveled around the world with her husband, and taught children everywhere she went to dance. After several years, however, she grew tired of all the travel, and came back to New York, where she opened a dance studio with a childhood friend, Claire Muller. Loesch had been teaching tap dancing in an after-school program in West Hempstead, and thought it best to open the school in a location that would be convenient for her students. On September 5, 1953, the June Claire School of Dance opened at 449 Hempstead Ave., where it operates to this day.

The school’s popularity grew, and the two women eventually opened several other dance schools under the same name — in north Babylon in 1965, in Hauppauge in 1969 (which relocated to Smithtown), and in Patchogue in 1979 (which relocated to Holbrook).

According to Loesch’s business partners, thousands of students have taken lessons at June Claire, and many of them have become professional dancers, teachers and choreographers. Many current students at the school have mothers and grandmothers who also danced there.

Loesch is survived by her business partner and companion, Lynda Gache; a niece, Betty Paul, and her husband, Max, of Merrick; and many great nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her parents, William and Barbara Annacherico, and her second husband, George Loesch. She was interred at St. Charles Cemetery.