Judge Kohout shares her passion for dance

By Nora A. Jones
The Daily Record
Posted: 2:37 am Mon, February 13, 2012

Monroe County Family Court Judge Joan Kohout remembers watching The Mickey Mouse Club on television, seeing — perhaps for the first time — children singing and dancing. It was most likely one of the sparks that ignited her interest in dance. She also recalls going to New York City to see the Nutcracker Ballet when she was still in grade school. That may have initiated a lifelong interest in ballet. She still takes ballet lessons at Hochstein, and wherever the best teachers are.

“Hochstein’s Chair of the Dance Department, Diane Lewis, is a wonderful ballet instructor, especially skilled at teaching adults,” Judge Kohout said. “I have been taking ballet classes from her for many years and continue to learn new things in every class.”

Act One

Judge Kohout grew up in Mamaroneck, Westchester County. She and her sister both had the opportunity to take dance lessons.

“When I was five or six years old,” Judge Kohout said, “my mother offered a choice between summer day camp or dancing lessons in the fall. I knew my best friend across the street was going to take dance, so I enrolled with her at Mr. Kenney’s Dancing School in Rye, N.Y.”

Learning tap and ballet, the two Kohout girls moved on from Mr. Kenney’s to study ballet with former Balanchine dancer Lorna London and jazz dance at the Stefi Nossen School.

There were dance recitals each year, as well as chorus parts in school plays.

Act Two

While at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs pursuing her political science degree,

Judge Kohout studied modern dance, acknowledging Skidmore’s excellent Arts Department. As a member of the Skidmore Dance ensemble, Judge Kohout performed and choreographed dances throughout her college years.

“I was thinking of going on for a masters’ in political science, but one of my professors, who happened to be a lawyer, talked to me about law school,” Judge Kohout explained. “There were no lawyers in our family, and there were still very few women in law school in the late 1960s. But my Dad confessed that he had an interest in the law, and my next stop was Albany.”

While in law school, Judge Kohout continued to study ballet in Schenectady and performed with a small group of former Skidmore students. Graduating from Albany Law School in 1971, she shared her interest in litigation with two like-minded women. Their small practice included criminal and civil litigation. In the early 1970s, few female attorneys were in court, and fewer yet in criminal court.

During the early 1970s, Monroe County Public Defender Peter Yellin was feeling the pressure to diversify the staff as more women were entering the practice of law. Yellin offered Judge Kohout a job, and in 1975, she became the first female in the Monroe County PD’s Office. (Same timeframe: the Hon. Patricia Marks was breaking similar barriers in the District Attorney’s Office.)

Judge Kohout stayed in the PD’s office for 12 years, focusing on criminal work for five, and family issues for seven years.

Family Court

“I might still be at the PD’s office,” Judge Kohout said, “but Michael Miller was chairing the Democratic Party and asked me to apply for a vacancy in Monroe County Family Court. I was a bit lackluster about the process. I was not politically inclined, and my mother passed away during this timeframe.”

In early 1988, Gov. Mario Cuomo nominated Judge Kohout to Monroe County Family Court, and she was appointed to the bench in June 1988. She had to decide almost immediately whether she would run in the November election. She put together a committee and was elected for her first 10-year term in November 1988. Subsequently, she secured her second term in 1998, and her third in 2008.

In the community

She loves the way dance helps connect her to young people — at Hochstein, in Family Court, and in the theater.

“I always tell young dancers that you do not have to dance professionally to continue to dance after you leave school. The enjoyment and discipline that comes from studying dance will carry over into all aspects of your life,” Judge Kohout said. “Dance is a wonderful part of my life. It is one of the things I do for myself. I love to be an audience for other dancers, appreciating the discipline and hard work it takes to do it well.

Discipline and a strong work ethic are things Judge Kohout has in abundance.

Judge Kohout currently chairs the Juvenile Justice Subcommittee of the Office of Court Administration’s Family Court Advisory and Rules Committee. She also sits on the Monroe County Juvenile Justice Council.

In 2009, Judge Kohout served as the Dean of the Monroe County Bar Association’s Academy of Law. She is also an active member of Rochester’s YWCA’s Racial Justice Committee, and the GRAWA Diversity Committee.

She has served on the boards or advisory committees in a wide variety of organizations focusing on the courts and families, including the Mt. Hope Family Center, the Center for Dispute Resolution, Volunteer Legal Services Project and Rochester Society for the Protection and Care of Children.

On the home front

While establishing her legal career, Judge Kohout did not find time for much personal life — other than dance lessons for an active and creative outlet. At 45, Judge Kohout married Michael Hunt, an engineer at Eastman Kodak who has since retired.

“He liked to dance,” she said. “He had taken ballroom dancing lessons in the past and suggested we take ballroom dancing together when we were dating. We still enjoy dance as an activity and as a performance. We travel to New York City and Toronto to see dance performances, and enjoy many dance troupes in the Greater Rochester area.”

Judge Kohout doesn’t plan to be on Dancing with the Stars, but she acknowledges that the television programs featuring dance demonstrate a renewed audience interest in this particular performing art.

She is an avid reader, and loves to walk and bicycle with her husband.