Nathaniel Ethan Lee

of Brooklyn, NY, died at suddenly at home, of a heart attack on Sunday November 13.

Nathaniel, known to many by his childhood nickname of “Taani”, was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on January 3, 1960, and moved to Palo Alto, California at a young age. He attended the Peninsula School, Addison Elementary School, Jordan Middle School, and Palo Alto High School. Taani enrolled at the University of California at Santa Cruz where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Theater in 1982 and a Master of Arts in Dance in 1983. He followed that with a Master of Arts in Dance from The Ohio State University in 1985 where he also served as a Teaching Associate.

Nathaniel moved to New York City after graduating, where he performed as a freelance dancer with many noteworthy choreographers and groups including: Susan Hadley, Terry Creach and Stephen Koester, Marta Renzi, Charles Moulton, Mark Morris, Neil Greenberg, Bobo Dance Theatre, and he toured extensively in Peter Sellars’ staging of Le Nozze di Figaro.

During his performing career, Nathaniel began an intense and ongoing study of Pilates technique, and was certified to teach by The Greene Street Studio/Deborah Lessen in 1997. He began teaching in Brooklyn in 1999, and shortly after introduced Pilates classes at The School at the Mark Morris Dance Center. He opened Terrace Pilates in September of 2020.

Nathaniel is the son of Dr. Marvin Lee and the late Alison Preble Lee.

In addition to his father, Nathaniel is survived by his wife and son, Tina Fehlandt and Samuel Lee, brother and sister-in-law, Joel “Jody” Lee and

Vickie Porter Lee, sister-in-law and brother-in-law Drs. Alanna and William Bodenstab, nieces and nephews, Jacob Lee, Sydney Lee, Maddilyn Lee, Isabella Fehlandt, Allan Frederick Fehlandt III, and Oliver Fehlandt, Eric Bodenstab and Alison Miller and their families, his Aunt Judith Preble Miller, and mother-in-law Hazel Fehlandt.