<< Return to Foundation Focus Page Florence Cassell-Roosen: A Loving Legacy Florence Cassell-Roosen was not the type of person who would brag. Her three grown children never knew she had once been asked to dance with legendary choreographer George Balanchine or been invited to be a Rockette until they were preparing to celebrate her 50th year of teaching dance. “She just never talked about that,” says Cassell-Roosen’s daughter Miya Rollenhagen of her mother, who died in September 2003. “She wanted everything to be about the kids she taught. That’s her legacy.” That loving legacy has been honored with a new CFMC Scholarship Fund made possible through memorial contributions as well as a generous matching gift from an anonymous donor. The scholarships are to be used by students to attend seminars, workshops and auditions, says Rollenhagen. They will be awarded based on teacher recommendation to students throughout West Michigan who attend schools which are members of the Cecchetti Council of America, an organization dedicated to maintaining the standards and methods of training established by famed dance teacher Enrico Cecchetti. Cassell-Roosen’s resume is impressive; in addition to her 50-years as a teacher, she danced, choreographed or acted in more than 30 Port City Opera or Muskegon Civic Theater productions. She studied extensively in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and earned an Advanced Ballet degree from the Cecchetti Council of America. But her heart was always with her students. “After she died we got so many letters about how my mom had touched people’s lives,” says Rollenhagen. “She was always there for them if they needed to talk. She not only taught dance lessons, she taught life lessons." << Return to Foundation Focus Page