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In a new book, Romanian-born Jewish emigrant
CATERINe
Jacob Lascu recounts his climb back to prominence
IS OUR
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ESTHER ALLWEISS TSCHIRHART
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Special to the Jewish News
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t mid-career, Iacob (pro-
nounced "Jacob") Lascu
made the hard decision to
leave behind his celebrated
status as a dancer, choreographer and
ballet master in Communist Romania
for the promise of a freer life in America.
The Jewish artist, then 46, came with
his wife Maria and son Eugen to Detroit,
where her brother lived, in 1972.
Assisted initially by
the former Jewish
Resettlement Service
with financial aid, a
clothing allowance and a
security deposit on an
apartment, Lascu first
worked as a tailor. He
gradually re-established
himself at the top of his
profession.
The teacher-choreog-
rapher and professor
emeritus at Marygrove
College in Detroit is
probably best known for
his many years (until 1997) as coordi-
nator of the holiday ballet, The
Nutcracker, performed annually with
the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
In his aptly titled autobiography
Two Lives in Two Worlds (1st Books
Library; $17.50), Lascu, 77, of West
Bloomfield tells of his lifelong devo-
tion to two things: perfecting his craft
and loving Maria, a former ballerina
who taught youngsters in the Lascu
Ballet School, first established in
Southfield before moving to larger
locations in Birmingham and then
Bloomfield Hills.
His wife had always wanted him to
write this book, Lascu said, but he
didn't start until after her death from
cancer in 1988 — and surviving his
own bout with breast cancer in recent
years. The project took him four years.
For research, "I went back to
Romania twice," Lascu said. "I found
people who remembered my parents"
in Beclean, Lascu's birthplace, and
Timisoara, where he went to high
school. Born Iacob Brummer, he took
his Catholic wife's last name for politi-
cal survival.
Students of the exacting ballet
instructor might be surprised to read
in the book about his tenderness.
One who knows firsthand is Lascu's
former student Miriam Goldstein of
Windsor, a 10th-grade student at
Walkerville Collegiate, the city's cre-
ative arts high school. When she was
7, she went to see Lascu, crying, "You
yelled at me."
Then "he felt sorry and gathered me
in his arms and said, 'I
want you to be the best you
can be. That's why I push
you as hard as I can,'"
recalled Goldstein.
The Goldstein family still
invites Lascu for meals on
Jewish holidays and had a
lunch this year to celebrate
the March 19 birthday he
shares with Miriam.
Dancer-choreographer
Harriet Berg helped Lascu
get established in the dance
community. Calling him
"an incredibly talented and
skilled artist," Berg said Lascu is "the
repository of a way of dance that is
important for all of us to understand.
His life represents a remarkable adapt-
ability of an artist to survive in all kinds
of situations in order to fulfill his art."
"He is an excellent teacher," agrees
Pilates instructor Michelle Levine
Millman of Farmington Hills, who spent
the last 15 years as a member of Berg's
Festival Dancers. "He really understands
the technique of ballet and knows how
to build strength in his students, both
physical and mental strength."
Nurse Pam Goldstein, Miriam's
mother and herself a former dancer,
said Lascu's "technique is flawless."
When he led three workshops recently
at her daughter's dance school in
Windsor, Pam Goldstein said, "The
kids weren't getting something and he
said, 'Let me show you.' He is still
amazing, showing the dance moves."
Citing Lascu's passion and dignity,
Pam Goldstein said he passes on to his
students "that drive to do the best [of]
your ability. Almost all of his students