Kathryn 'Kay' Preston, 46, ex-ballerina
Kathryn ''Kay'' Preston, a former dancer with the Miami City Ballet, has died. She was 46 and was shot by her husband in their Biscayne Park home. After killing his wife, police say Christopher Yearwood, 35, ended his own life.
Relatives said Preston, born in Boston but raised in South Florida, discovered ballet as a child, when she was forced to exercise her legs because of a bout with polio.
As she overcame the disease, it was discovered Preston was a dance prodigy. She turned professional at age 15, dancing with the Harkness Ballet Company of New York City. Three years later, Preston left ballet and began touring the Middle East and Europe while researching and helping to film documentaries about surviving ancient cultures. She was part of a crew that filmed the Whirling Dervishes and Rumi in Turkey in 1974 and '75. Two years later, she traveled to Iran with a film crew to record the Mandeans leaving Tehran. Her research was for organizations such as the British Museum in London and the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris.
After a seven-year break from professional dancing, Preston returned to the ballet. In 1980, she joined the Zurich Opera House in Switzerland and performed around the world. Then, in 1986, she joined the Miami City Ballet for its inaugural season.
''She was one of the original 19 dancers'' in the Miami City Ballet, said Edward Villella, artistic director. ``We had the lovely good fortune to work with her early on.''
Local dance critics praised Preston for her vivid portrayal of Desdemona in Jose Limon's "The Moor's Pavane" and her role as the first Siren in the ballet's production of George Balanchine's "Prodigal Son." Preston also danced in Balanchine's "Valse Fantasie" and the 1987 premiere of a Balanchine/Bach etude by Jimmy Gamonet de los Heros called "Bach in Three Movements." •