Dancer Stabbed to Death Was a Shy Boy Turned Proud, Exuberant Man
Karen Pendergrass kept seeing the lanky boy walk by the lunchroom where she taught dance twice a week to eighth grade students in North Philadelphia.
He would peer inside, then run away as soon as Ms. Pendergrass made eye contact. “You come peeking in my door one more time and you’re coming in my class,” Ms.
Pendergrass told him. “From there, he never left.” For the next 15 years, O’Shae Sibley danced, working on the side as a delivery man, waiter and cleaner between auditions and performances in Philadelphia and New York, where he moved to further his career.
At 28, he was preparing to audition for “The Lion King,” one of his favorite Broadway musicals. But on Saturday, Mr. Sibley and his friends made a quick stop at a Brooklyn gas station as they came back from a beach day.
