Charmaine Wall

Charmaine Wall, 87, passed away on April 29, 2026. She left her husband of 59 years, Joel.

Charmaine was well known in Springfield for the Charmaine School of Dance, a dancing school she operated for some 30 years. She had inspired many children, and some of her students moved on to professional theatrical careers in Broadway shows, etc. She studied choreography and dance technique in Manhattan every summer, earned a master’s degree in dance arts, and held an actor’s equity card for being a professional dancer and actress at age 17 in summer stock theaters-in-the-round. She loved to dance and was very athletic — logging 25,000 or more daily Fitbit steps until recently; in her 80s she tap-danced in the Hopkinton Senior Center variety shows, which both she and the audience enjoyed immensely.

Although many Springfield residents knew of her dance teaching skills, many did not know that, as a child, she also had extraordinary talent in classical piano. She played a Mozart concerto with the Springfield symphony when she was age 10, without sheet music. Her parents, Irving and Lenore Sayles, tried to get her the best local piano teachers available in the Massachusetts area, but they all said they couldn’t improve her piano skills and that she needed to find a piano teacher at a much higher level, like in New York City.

Charmaine and her mother were in Manhattan for a dance convention when Charmaine was 11 years old. While there, Charmaine was trying out a piano at a Steinway piano store and the store manager heard her remarkable playing. After learning that she didn’t have a good piano teacher, he connected her with a famous concert pianist, Sari Biro, who was living in Manhattan and giving concerts at Carnegie Hall. Biro gave Charmaine a scholarship for weekly piano lessons at her residence in Manhattan. Charmaine and her mother took the train round trip from Springfield to Manhattan weekly, for about four years, when Charmaine was age 11 to 15, for these piano lessons. However, the stress of practicing piano for six hours daily at home, plus the weekly 12-plus-hour round trip to Manhattan, plus schoolwork, became to stressful for her. So, very reluctantly and sadly, she had to give up her piano career for her mental well-being. Then Charmaine moved on to her dance teaching career, which was very successful. The baby grand piano on which she played as a child is still with Joel in their Hopkinton residence.

After her father, Irving Sayles, passed away in March 1969, some of her senior students surprised Charmaine and her mother, Lenore Sayles, at the school’s June 1969 dance recital with an emotional student-choreographed and totally unexpected dance to the music from “Exodus.” Lenore Sayles, her mom, then was invited in to live with Charmaine and Joel, which lasted for 16 years until Lenore passed away in 1985. Charmaine, Joel and Lenore moved to Hopkinton in 1984 when Charmaine closed her dance studio in Springfield. Charmaine then became a landlord by way of rental property that she purchased in Massachusetts and was involved with that business activity for over 30 years. She enjoyed visiting with her tenants and always brought gifts of clothing, etc., for them around Christmastime.

Charmaine will be missed by all who were fortunate enough to have known her. Her funeral will be Friday, May 1, at 1:30 p.m. at the Ascher-Zimmerman Funeral Home, with burial to follow in B’nai Jacob Cemetery.

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