Ursula Melita Hirschfeld Heisman, ballet director

Ursula Melita Hirschfeld Heisman, 93, whose Ballet des Jeunes performed for Princess Grace on a trip to Monaco, died Sunday, April 1, of thyroid disease at her home in Wynnewood.

Known as Ursula Melita, she directed the ballet, for girls up to 18, simultaneously at studios in Bala Cynwyd, Moorestown, and Philadelphia.

Ballet des Jeunes is now located at Tambussi Studio in Westmont, Camden County, and is run by Donna Tambussi, who became its artistic director in 1986.

When the 25-member troupe was leaving for the visit to Monaco in August 1968, Ms. Melita told an Inquirer reporter: "The dancers are fresh and beautiful. I get all shook up when I see them. It's not just a bunch of kids jumping around."

The article, the headline for which referred to them as "Pigtail Ambassadors," reported that after the visit to Monaco, the dancers would attend an unidentified French ballet school for two weeks.

Ms. Melita led her dancers on other foreign trips.

In 1975, for instance, the company, which she founded, spent three weeks in Romania on what was termed an Ambassadors of Friendship tour, mixing classical ballet with folk dance.

In an interview Monday, Arlene Heisman, wife of nephew Robert Heisman, said she acted as a chaperone on two of the ballet's European tours.

Though others might be daunted by handling more than 20 young girls in foreign settings, Arlene Heisman said, Ms. Melita "took everything in stride. It wasn't difficult."

Born in Berlin as Ursula Melita Hirschfeld, Ms. Melita fled to Cuba with her brother Helmut soon after the anti-Semitic riots known as Kristallnacht in November 1938, the year she turned 20.

She told The Inquirer in 1987 that she moved to the United States in 1945 and opened a ballet school in New York, moved to Philadelphia in 1949, and a few years later opened a dance school here.

"All the parents looked at me like I was completely out of my mind. . . . Like, how can children dance?" she told the interviewer.

"I feel children can do so much more than people expect them to do," she said, "if taught right."

Nearly all the children who began with her troupe at ages 9 or 10 remained until they graduated at 18, she said.

Newspaper reports indicated that the troupe - which numbered 50 dancers at one point - received wide exposure.

For instance, the dancers performed in 1981 at the Annenberg Center at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1982 with the Lansdowne Symphony at Rose Tree Park, and in 1983 at Center Stage in Mount Holly.

A 1985 report stated that they had performed in Austria and Hungary that year. A 1987 article stated that they were to perform that year at the Ludlow (England) Festival.

In 1978, Ms. Melita was elected secretary of the Philadelphia Dance Alliance. She retired in 1987.

Arlene Heisman said that Ms. Melita is survived by several nephews and nieces. Ms. Melita's husband, Allen Heisman, died in 2008.

A graveside service was set for 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 3, at Haym Salomon Memorial Park, Frazer.