Carol Loud, until recently a resident of Martha’s Vineyard, died peacefully on Oct. 5 in Canton after a period of failing health. She was 89.

She was born at home in Waterville, Me. on June 9, 1934, to Russell and Gwendolyn Loud. During her school years in Waterville, she began lessons on the violin and piano. This led to a lifetime of music that she shared with the world through performance and teaching. During high school, she played bass drum in parades, which conjures quite a picture since Carol was rather a small pixie.

When she started dance lessons, she knew she’d found her passion.

After graduating from the University of Maine in 1956, she lived briefly in Boston, where she worked at what became public radio. She attended graduate school at New York University and began serious studies in dance. In the early 1960s she moved to California and taught dance to children and organized dancing in the streets of San Francisco.

She developed deep ties and lifetime friendships in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lived for more than 30 years. She was a member of the dance communities in San Francisco and Berkeley, performing and teaching adults and children.

After moving to Martha’s Vineyard, she returned to the Bay Area each summer to teach workshops in creative body alignment, also known as ideokinesis, which she had studied in depth. She added inimitable humor, fun and poetry, along with her deep knowledge of the body, to this important work. She returned regularly to Berkeley Moving Arts until 2018.

She moved to the Vineyard in 1995, driving across the country with her sister, Martha Mezger. She kept a journal of their travels. When she settled in, Carol quickly became involved in the Island’s varied music scene, teaching piano, taking dance classes, accompanying the Minnesingers and students in Islandwide string classes and recitals.

She was an early member of Island Community Chorus and also sang in Vintage Voices. During street fairs in Vineyard Haven, she was one of the troubadours. She built a washtub bass and played it with the Princess Pupule ukulele band.

Friends and family from on- and off-Island gathered at the home she shared with Martha and Dick to celebrate his birthday. It was a memorable event when Carol played piano and Martha sang.

She served as a church musician at the Unitarian Universalist Society, Christian Science Reading Room and Chilmark Community Church.

For the last 26 years she was a featured soloist and part of The Woman Within dancers in Built on Stilts. The week before she moved to Canton to be near Martha and Dick, the crew and talented technicians at Built on Stilts developed a tribute to Carol’s performances, including many of her wonderful dances. The video was featured at the Friday performance at Union Chapel and Carol was there to watch it.

She was one of a kind. When Carol presented programs at Windemere, she distributed instruments to the patients and they became part of the performance. On one occasion, she enlisted help in carrying her patients, wheelchairs and all, onto the Tabernacle stage so they could be part of a fundraiser.

Carol is survived by her sister Martha and brother in law Richard Mezger; nieces and nephews Tony Glazier, Gayle Touchstone, Steven Glazier and Gwen Taibi; six great-nieces and nephews; her beloved Chihuahua Charlie; and her many, many friends in many places.

She was predeceased by her parents and brother.

She said she needed to live on the Vineyard because people here continued to dance even as they grew older. And so she did. She was much loved for her talents, which she shared generously, and her great joy in living.

Carol’s dance is complete. Nothing can be added; nothing can be taken away.

A memorial service will be held at a later date.