Vanessa Schnatmeier (1954-2012)
From BACDS Country Dancer No. 96 Dec 2013
Remembering Vanessa by Erik Hoffman
A year ago we lost a stalwart, joyous, creative member of our dance community. Vanessa Schnatmeier passed away on November 21, 2012.
Vanessa was born October 6, 1954 in Southern California to Jux and Louise (later “Pace” Carter) Schnatmeier. She and her two younger sisters, Kiva Jaye and Erika, received an early awareness of folk music from their mother, who was a well-known folk music DJ. Before she fell in love with dance, Vanessa pursued a career in journalism. In the 1970s, she studied that topic at Pierce College, and went on to receive a BA in Journalism at San Jose State. After graduating, she served as an editorial assistant to Steve Rosenthal, who sold articles to aviation magazines. Around 1979, Vanessa spent a year in England, where she wrote news copy for the BBC to supplement her travel funds.
As personal computers grew in popularity, she began writing for PC Magazine and A+ (Ziff-Davis magazines). From there, she held the position as the new products editor for Unix/World magazine for several years. When that magazine folded, she worked six months at Uniforum as the newsletter editor. She also wrote for Hersay Women’s News Service, and would read six newspapers a day and follow up on clippings.
Through her friendship with Alan Winston (long-time BACDS board member), Vanessa found Regency dancing. In 1985, her effort to launch this form of dance in the Bay Area led to her co-founding the Bay Area English Regency Society (BAERS). She also became involved in BACDS, where she served on the board for many years, and was the Publicity Coordinator for at least a decade. She was the registrar and co-manager of BACDS Fall Weekend for many years.
Vanessa enjoyed all manner of country dance, from the formal Regency events to English country dance to American dance to Morris and Molly dancing. She danced with Mayfield Morris. When it broke up, she joined Mad Molly. When her health no longer permitted her to dance, she drummed for them. Wanting to encourage others to enjoy the gamut of dancing, she started a Barn Dance series that ran off and on from 2003 to 2009. In the mid-1990s, Vanessa received a Masters of Arts from the Interdisciplinary Arts Center at San Francisco State, and followed that accomplishment with an internship at Southern Exposure gallery. Interested in performance art, she staged several pieces which involved country dance among her body of work.
In the last several years, she’d taken classes at Foothill College, including choir, T-shirt printing, and sound recording and editing with the aim of getting a certificate in sound editing. She was active in LiveJournal, LASFAPA (Los Angeles Scientification Fan’s Amateur Press Association), and Facebook. She pursued making, thinking, and doing until the end, even using her iPhone to work on music composition homework in the hospital.
She died at Stanford Hospital a bit after midnight on the morning of November 21, 2012. She is survived by her sisters, Kiva Jaye Catalina and Erika Schnatmeier. She also survives in the memory of all of us who knew and loved and danced with her. We miss you, Vanessa!