Sandra Sue Noll was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and raised in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where her parents moved when she was five years old. She began her theatrical training at an early age in classes for ballet, tap dancing, and drama at the Sue Keller Studio. Her ballet teachers there included Keller's daughter, Toby Keller Jorgensen, as well as a changing roster of dancers trained in Balanchine technique at the School of American Ballet in New York City. Noll continued her training at the Keller Studio until her sophomore year at the University of Arkansas. She was befriended during her college years by Eleanor King, a pioneer of modern dance who was an artist in residence at the university. In 1956, encouraged by King and at her mother's urging, she found the courage to audition for entrance to the recently established Dance Division at the Juilliard School in New York, which offered an innovative curriculum that included both ballet and modern dance for all its students.Sandra Noll Hammond, Professor of Dance, curriculum vitae supplement, dated 19 March 2015, in faculty files of the University of Hawai'i Manoa; used by permission of the subject.
