Orla Baxendale, the U.K.-born dancer who died from a peanut allergy after her family said she ate a mislabeled cookie from Stew Leonard’s, was remembered by friends and the prestigious dance schools she attended as a talented, driven and “radiant” young woman whose dream of making it big in New York City ended in a senseless tragedy.
“Orla had such an effervescent personality, she had a silliness and really joyful, full-of-life personality and she was really living life to the fullest extent,” Lilli Jacobs, 26, said of Baxendale.
“Like a spring fairy is almost how I would describe her.”
Baxendale, 25, died Jan. 11 after going into anaphylactic shock from eating a Vanilla Florentine cookie manufactured by Cookies United and sold in a Stew Leonard’s store in Connecticut, her family said. The previous recipe did not contain peanuts and the list of ingredients on the current labels had not been updated.
Stew Leonard’s and the Food and Drug Administration issued a recall of the cookies that were sold in Danbury and Newington, Conn., from Nov. 6 to Dec. 31, 2023.
“She moved here to New York City to really make her dreams a reality,” said Jacobs, who is also a dancer. “A lot of our conversations were about the efforts to make your dreams happen.”
Baxendale lived on the Upper West Side and worked at the front desk of a nearby Pilates studio, where Jacobs is an instructor. The two friends both took dance classes at a Manhattan studio and went on auditions together.
“I think Orla had a very strong sense of her ‘why’ as a performer. I think she’s had this passion from such a young age, it catapulted her from halfway across the world to try and make it here,” said Jacobs.
Baxendale was in Connecticut to perform when she ate the cookie and went into shock, said Jacobs.
“She was soft and beautiful, tough and resilient. She was just the coolest person and still had this effortless grace about her. She was good to her people, ever patient, caring and attentive,” wrote friend Lexi Sim, 23, in an email to the Daily News.
They met at the prestigious Ailey School in 2018, said Sim, who called her friend “radiant” and “incredibly graceful.”
“We became close in September 2020 when we went back to finish our final year at school and have done everything together since,” said Sim, who called Baxendale’s energy “enchanting.”
“She was truly an amazing dancer and could have done anything in her career.”
“Orla was born and raised in Manchester, U.K., and moved to New York in 2018 to join the Ailey family as a scholarship student. Since then, she had become an integral part of the New York dance world, pursuing her passion, shining her bright light, and doing what she loved most,” said the Ailey School in a statement.
Before moving to New York, Baxendale had graduated from Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham, England, said the school.
“A radiant force both on and off the dance floor, she embodied a thirst for life that was truly captivating. Her authenticity and ability to stay true to herself resonated with all who had the privilege of knowing her, and she had a remarkable gift for lighting up any room she entered,” Elmhurst wrote in a statement.
Cookies United claimed in a statement released Tuesday that it had notified Stew Leonard’s of the recipe change in July 2023 and that the cookies were labeled accordingly. The manufacturer claims the Connecticut-based grocery chain repackages its product and therefore bears responsibility for the labeling error.
In a video statement released Wednesday, Stew Leonard Jr. contradicted those claims, saying the manufacturer did not notify Stew Leonard’s chief safety officer of the recipe change.
Baxendale’s family started an online fundraiser for Allergy UK, a medical charity, which has raised almost $13,000.
“We are all devastated by the loss of our beautiful and talented Orla who was taken from us far too soon,” read the fundraiser. “It’s incomprehensible that allergies can still take lives in 2024. Please read about anaphylaxis as you may help to save someone’s life one day.”