For 25 years, her exacting standards made us better
Dana Seman, the Tribeca Trib’s director of advertising for 25 years and a resident of Independence Plaza in Tribeca since 1974, died on June 16 from cancer at age 69. Though in hospice care during her last month of life, Seman insisted on working with clients until just two weeks before her death. Following is a remembrance by Trib publisher April Koral, who worked closely with Seman during her many years with our publication.
Dana’s formal title was Advertising Director, but that was misleading. She was also the office's high priestess of sorts, weighing in on the paper's cover, trying to sway editorial decisions, and offering her opinions about design. Carl Glassman (the editor) and I sometimes bridled at her suggestions. The printer was waiting for the issue, we were tired, it was okay the way it was. But as much as we hated to admit it, Dana was often right.
Dana's career at the Trib began with a chance encounter with Carl on Hudson and Reade Streets. "We're looking for someone to work with April and sell ads," he happened to mention to her. "I can do that!" she replied.
And so she began.
Dana had never sold an ad before.
She had grown up in Roslyn Heights, Long Island, and after two years at Skidmore, had transferred to Dartmouth, joining the first class of women graduates. Faculty and students were not always welcoming. Just a few weeks ago, Dana told me a story about being accosted by a professor as she was crossing the campus green. "So you're here to get your MRS?" the professor, a woman, said to her aggressively before marching off.
A woman of many talents, Dana was a dancer, calligrapher, and actress. By profession she was a personal trainer focusing on healing through movement and touch. Perhaps it appealed to her in the same way as improving The Tribeca Trib. By studying the way her clients moved, sat and otherwise held their bodies she was able to help them make life-changing adjustments. Some of them found relief from pain that they had had for years. Her fingers were magic.
To master her craft, Dana was perpetually studying, taking classes in the fields of Body-Mind Centering, Cranial Sacral Massage, Zero Balancing, and Feldenkrais for which she earned a certification. On more than one occasion, she opined about the way I walked or sat or held my body. I didn't like it. But of course Dana was right and I slowly began changing my ways.
When she started working for us, many of Tribeca's small stores were owned by local residents. Dana went around to all of them and got to know the owners and managers. In the beginning, I was afraid they might be put off by a saleswoman stopping by. But, I was soon proved wrong. I would regularly run into store owners on the street who gushed about Dana. "Dana is so nice." "Dana is so sweet." "Tell Dana to come by." And, needless to say, Dana was there to help them improve their businesses. She gave advice about their websites, their ads, their…everything. And, yes, Dana was usually right.
A few days before she died, Dana and I had this text exchange.
Dana: The Trib job has been so good for me. I learned a lot from you and Carl and it used other parts of my brain than bodywork.
Me: It is you I have to thank. I learned so much from you! Sometimes I will be careless in doing something and I say to myself, "Stop, do it like Dana would!"
Dana: You and I are a very good team.
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COMMENTS
I was very saddened to read the obituary in the Trib about Dana. It was always a pleasure to run into Dana around the neighborhood. The twinkle in her eye and her optimistic demeanor were most valued and very appreciated. Epp and I will both miss her.
Randy Hardy
It is with great sadness that we read about Dana’s passing. We opened our gallerie Antiqueria Tribeca in April of 2000. It was an exciting and yet a scary time to open a business in a neighborhood quite unfamiliar to us. First well wishes came from Carl Glassman and April Koral followed shortly by Dana. Her gentle demeanor, knowledge of the neighborhood and smart business advice are still vividly in my mind. That was the start of our many years of advertising in the Tribeca Trib as well as a close relationship with Dana. I very much looked forward to her weekly visits inquiring about business, family and life in general. Always a smile and a friendly face. I am sure she will be greatly missed by all who had the good fortune to cross her path.
Marion and Peter Feig
I had the privilege of knowing Dana over something like 25 years. When I think of her today, I think of her sweetness and lovely manner. She would stop in the street to say hello and gift you with her wonderful smile and the sense that she was so glad to have run into you. She always left me feeling so happy to have seen her.
Barrie Mandel
I am so sorry to read about the passing of Dana Seman. I remember her well from those early years when I advertised in your print editions. She really worked with me. I had no idea about her body work; fascinating to know that now. Sincerest condolences to you and colleagues.
Suellen Epstein
Sad news. Sorry for your loss and the community's loss as well. Allan Tannenbaum
via Facebook
Tribeca has lost the sweetest smile on the streets. So very, very sad. Deepest sympathy to her Tribeca Trib family, her family and friends.
Deborah Lupard
Dana was always so lovely, one of the true Tribeca locals who knew everyone in the neighborhood. We probably first met her around 20 years ago as our Trib ad rep when we ran Tribeca Girls... Always so nice to run into her through the years, have a stree tcorner chat...may she rest in peace.
Rob Asen
Oh goodness, I am so sorry to hear this. I only knew Dana for about a year while working at the Trib, but she was a very memorable person. She was always full of energy, warmth, and positivity. She will be missed. My deepest condolences to her family, friends, and to you both, April and Carl.
Aline Reynolds Khan
Dana brought a lot of life to the Trib office, and I’m so sorry to learn of her passing.
Elizabeth Miller
I am so very sorry to hear about this. She was my neighbor and always such a lovely person, personally and professionally.
Peter Comitini
This is incredibly sad news…Dana was always so nice and always enjoyed seeing her in the neighborhood....
Jeffrey Tabak
I remember Dana well—so sad to hear! My deepest condolences to her loved ones.
Amanda Nicole Wood
Dana was a lovely woman, so helpful as a personal trainer, and a good human being.
Mafa Jane
Oh no! How sad for all of us.
Madeline Lanciani
Condolences. What a lovely person.
Amy Bergenfeld
A Remembrance
My friend Dana was a Master Imaginer.
From the very beginning when we met in 1973 when she came to live in the communal house we had in Hanover, until a couple of weeks ago when she could no longer engage in conversation beyond making known her basic needs and desires, Dana engaged whoever was playful, willing and daring enough in creating worlds of wonder, delight and sometimes surreal experience. The participants in these creative endeavors were not limited to friends—Dana extended this invitation to anyone she encountered: waiters in restaurants, cab drivers, chemotherapy nurses. She would even extend feelers to earnest, humorless doctors with mixed results.
The conversations usually began innocently enough with a person—e.g. a chemotherapy nurse— asking while starting an IV “what do you have planned for the weekend” knowing that Dana was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and was too weak to walk. Dana might respond with “I’m flying to Paris to have lunch with a friend.” A playful, willing and daring nurse would respond with “Oh, I know a great place on the Left Bank,” and they’d be off and running, talking about what to order, the kinds of cooking oils the place used (Dana could only eat olive and avocado oil), the vintage of the wine, the decor down to minute details and then an extension of the adventure to activities following the meal to include a detailed description of a walk along the Seine. Underlying these forays into limitless worlds was always a sense of kindness, generosity of spirit, love—even when the expeditions incorporated irony or a little cynicism, just for the fun of it.
My favorite exchanges with Dana would take flight into the surreal—flying on the back of a sea turtle to a land governed by talking fish and orangutans, pretend playing with Barbie dolls with Ivanka Trump as Barbie and Donald as Ken.
When Dana passed on this morning—left her body, died, however you conceive of that state of being/non-being following what we call life—I tried to imagine there being no Dana, no more Dana worlds, no more Master Imaginer. But I am not creative enough to imagine such a thing. So I am left to wonder what amazing experiences Dana will create without having to rely on the material limitations of synaptic transmissions. Whatever they are will be filled with love, whimsy, funky music and light.
Dream on, beautiful Dana.
—Audrey Higbee