Tell those you love that you love them.

My friend's kid:

Joseph Sodd III lay bleeding and unconscious in a busy Minneapolis intersection early Wednesday. Just hours earlier, in front of his teen dance students, the college senior had previewed an original piece composed with rap music that "he hoped would make the audience remember me."

Presumably driving home on his moped from the University of Minnesota's West Bank area at about 2 a.m., Sodd may have been attacked during a robbery near 7th St. and 19th Avenue S.

A passerby saw him in the street and called police. Sodd had been stabbed once in the throat. The good Samaritan tried to render aid, but Sodd died later at a nearby hospital.

The 20-year-old had recently come home to Minneapolis after his junior year at the renowned Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, where a school official said Sodd's passion for dance and living had made him a beacon of the department.

After watching the NBA championship game Tuesday with his dad, Sodd hooked up with friends on the University of Minnesota.

"I'm all about forgiveness at this point," his father, Joseph Sodd Jr., said Wednesday. "I can't be angry. Do you think my son would want that?"

At that moment, Ian Huddleston slowly walked up the sidewalk at the Sodds' house and fell into the arms of his best friend's father, sobbing uncontrollably. The boys had met at the Perpich Center for Arts Education, the state's arts high school in Golden Valley.

"First time I met him, he was dancing to the music of the Velvet Underground. I knew then I needed to be his friend," Huddleston said. "I feel cheated he won't even make it to his 21st birthday."

It's too early in the investigation to know if robbery definitely was the motive, said Lt. Amelia Huffman, head of the Minneapolis homicide unit. Sodd's moped was left behind at the intersection of 7th St. and 19th Avenue S. in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, she said. It's a high-traffic area, and police hope someone who saw or heard the attack will come forward.

Investigators are also trying to determine if several recent robberies and assaults near the crime scene are connected to Sodd's death, Huffman said. Sodd is the city's 18th homicide this year, compared to 25 at this time in 2007.

Sodd specialized in tap dancing, inspired by watching Gene Kelly as a child. At the Perpich Center, a large dance banner featuring Sodd could be seen hanging in front of the school, his father said.

"Joe came to us a proficient tap dancer, but at Cornish he really started to learn about ballet and modern dance," said Kittie Daniels, chair of the college's dance department. "But he distinguished himself by bridging outside his base of comfort."

Next year, Sodd would have become one of 25 seniors in the dance department. When Daniels learned about Sodd's death, she tried to call his closest friends in the program. But word had already spread like wildfire before she contacted the first person, she said.

"If the person who did this knew Joe, they would have never used violence against him," Huddleston said. "I have no idea what would have motivated this."

Sodd Jr. said his son was graceful and strong. To have such graceful leaping ability as a dancer, Joe "sprouted a pair of invisible wings during his performances," he said. Joe's brother Alden graduated from Perpich Center last week and plans to study dance in California.

Sodd is the grandson of well-known Minnesota golfer Joseph Sodd, who won the state's Open championship in 1963 and later became a pro at Golden Valley Country Club.

Sodd was the kind of person who could bring different groups of people together, said Jim Pfeffer, a friend who lived with him in Seattle. He never "got bummed out about anything" and believed he was on the verge of something great.

A lover of music, he might be listening to Frank Zappa one minute and Kanye West the next, friends said. In Minneapolis, he was a student in the adult dance program at Zenon Dance Company and performed and taught with Out on a Limb Dance Company in St. Paul for the past five years.

"Joe is pretty indescribable," said Amber Keeley, director of Out on a Limb and a former dance partner. "He's loving and funny and goofy. He's so fun to watch on stage."

Sodd became a role model for his students at Out on a Limb, because he never passed judgment. Keeley said her staff is struggling to explain why he died so violently.

"I've been crying all day, so it really hasn't hit me that he won't be with us to dance anymore," she said. "But our artistic director said he danced like a star and now he's dancing with the stars."

dchanen startribune 6/19/08

R.I.P. Joe.