Australian dancer, aged 100, still hears call of the stage
Print Edition
Starring in music videos at the age of 100, Eileen Kramer is probably the oldest working dancer and choreographer in Australia, if not the world 鈥 and the centenarian revels in her age.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 mind. I鈥檓 100!鈥 she laughs from the Sydney rehearsal of a music video. 鈥淚鈥檓 liberated. I don鈥檛 have to be 35 all the time.鈥
Conversation with Kramer moves swiftly 鈥 from how she used to eavesdrop on philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in a Paris cafe, to modelling for famous artists, to Louis Armstrong teaching her to do the twist.
She puts her life鈥檚 unusual trajectory down to seeing, at the age of 24, a performance by Sydney鈥檚 Bodenwieser Ballet, run by Viennese immigrant Madame Gertrud Bodenwieser, who had fled to Australia via Colombia, escaping the Nazis.
Kramer tried out for the troupe and was accepted to classes. She recalls that after her first session she felt 鈥渇ree鈥 鈥 and within three years was a member of the company.
Although named the Bodenwieser Ballet, it is credited with being Australia鈥檚 first truly influential modern dance company, and despite her lack of classical training, Kramer found she had talent. 鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 wild, untrammelled movement; there was a definite technique to do. It just suited me.鈥
Kramer credits the languid movements learned at Bodenwieser and her own love of expressive gestures with enabling her to continue her dancing career for so long.
Other contemporaries have suffered more physical problems. 鈥淭he other members of the Bodenwieser Ballet mostly have something wrong with their bones. I haven鈥檛 got anything wrong because I didn鈥檛 do all that ... hitting the ground when you come down. So I think that鈥檚 why I haven鈥檛 got false hips or knees.鈥
Kramer says she still works on her ballet exercises, admittedly from the comfort of her bed most mornings.
She stays in touch with modern life using a mobile phone and has used Facebook, and asked about the secret to her longevity, she jokes: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 smoke, I don鈥檛 drink and I don鈥檛 chase women.鈥
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
