Estelle Sommers; Dance Patron and Co-Owner of Capezio Stores

Estelle Sommers, 74, philanthropist and joint owner of the nationwide Capezio Dance-Theater Shops. Mrs. Sommers had worked with her late husband, Ben Sommers, who was head of Capezio Ballet Makers, the shoe company. A major supporter of dance throughout the world, Mrs. Sommers was U.S. chairwoman of the International Committee for the Dance Library of Israel and an overseer of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Mass. She also worked with the Dance Notation Bureau, America-Israel Cultural Foundation, Center for Dance Medicine, International Ballet Competition U.S.A., International Dance Alliance, Joffrey School of Ballet, Harkness Center for Dance Injuries and Israeli Dance Institute. A native of Baltimore, she began her career with a dance supply business in Cincinnati and later moved to New York, where she met Sommers. On March 21 in New York of cancer.