NEWPORT BEACH : Wit, Charm of Dancer Recounted

Family and friends eulogized world-renowned ballet dancer Gregory Osborne Thursday, recalling with tears and laughter his artistic achievement and personal wit and warmth. The memorial service was held in the city where he was raised and died Saturday of cancer at age 39.

The photo of a smiling Osborne, a principal resident and guest dancer with many of the world’s finest ballet troupes, stood at the altar of Pacific View Memorial Park chapel. Beside it was an urn containing his ashes and a video monitor on which he was shown performing as Prince Siegfried in “Swan Lake,” one of the classic roles for which he earned fame.

Childhood “was a very happy time with many happy memories, memories of Greg,” said his brother, Richard Osborne, who elicited chuckles recounting how the young siblings “fought, and we laughed and we cried and got in trouble.”

The overflow crowd of about 250 included Molly Lynch, artistic director of Laguna Beach’s Ballet Pacifica, whose founder, Lila Zali, was Osborne’s first ballet instructor.

Gregory Patterson, Osborne’s personal manager and spokesman for the Orange County Performing Arts Center, where Osborne made one of several homecoming appearances, read telegrams from troupes in England, Scotland, Denmark and other sites where Osborne danced.

One, from former colleagues at American Ballet Theatre, which he joined in 1975, described Osborne as “a wonderful guy,” Patterson said, “loyal to his friends and committed to the world of ballet. We loved him, and we will miss him.”

Another, from the National Ballet of Canada, where he spent much of the 1980s, also in residence, said that Osborne’s performances “always illuminated the stage with their brilliance and virtuosity,” Patterson said. “Gregory’s wit and intelligence filled our lives with pleasure.”

Osborne’s mother, Lois, said after the memorial that she hoped people would remember her son’s “smile, his electric energy--he lit up a room--and his humility, that he always had.”

Osborne, who partnered such famed ballerinas as Cynthia Gregory, Natalia Makarova and Carla Fracci as a heroic danseur noble, was born in Louisville, Ky. He is also survived by his father, Matthew, who attended the service. In lieu of flowers, his family has asked that donations be made to the AIDS Services Foundation/Orange County.