by Eileen Kramer, the pioneering creative who was part of the company that “changed the face of modern dance” in Australia, has died aged 110. Her peers say her eleventh decade was the most creative of her life.
The dancer, choreographer, artist and author died peacefully at her home at Lulworth House in Sydney at 4.45pm on Friday, exactly a week after her 110th birthday.
Kramer was born on the evening of November 8, 1914 in Paddington, Sydney.
Her creative collaborator, choreographer and artist Sue Healey said Kramer was the oldest person in New South Wales and the third oldest in Australia when she died – “although age meant nothing to her…It was all about the spirit”.
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After joining the Bodenwieser Ballet, Australia’s first modern dance company, in the 1940s and touring with them for over a decade, Kramer continued to travel, dancing in the jazz bars of Paris, painting murals in Karachi, making films in New York and mixing with artists such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Groucho Marx.
She returned to Australia from America at the age of 99 and landed “with nothing,” Healey said. “She had one suitcase and really no family and no friends really because she had spent most of her life traveling.”
“She said it was the sound of the kookaburras and the smell of the rubber trees that she had to return to,” Healey said. “It was pure coincidence that we found her.”
One of Healey’s friends, performing artist Shane Carroll, “just sat next to her on a bench and talked about becoming a dancer.”
“And when we found her, a group of us had been with her every day for ten years. And I think that those…years were extraordinarily her most creative.”
Healey said that in addition to continuing to choreograph and perform new works, Kramer has written three books, led workshops at dance festivals and appeared in collaborative films, a stage show, a TV show and a music video for a rock band.
“She rewrote all the rules for how to behave as a centenarian, let alone being an elderly person,” Healey said.
“For her, it was all about creativity, and that’s what kept her going.”
In a statement, Kramer’s legal guardians said she was “a trailblazer and a true creative spirit” who “would be greatly missed by those who knew her and those who were inspired by her around the world.”
Kramer said at the age of 108: “I will always remain a Bodenwieser dancer, primarily because of my experiences and profession over the last century.”
The Bodenwieser Ballet was founded by the Austrian choreographer Gertrud Bodenwieser. Bodenweiser was of Jewish descent and escaped Hitler on the eve of his arrival in Vienna.
Her company “has completely transformed Australian modern dance,” Healey said.
Kramer saw the Bodenwieser Ballet performance at age 24 and “fell in love immediately and just knew she had to be a dancer,” Healey said.
“She came to the dance quite late. She had no training at all, but managed to join this company after three years.”
Kramer will appear on video in a final performance as Eurydice in Healey’s premiere of her work Afterworld: A requiem for Eurydice at the Sydney Festival.
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“It’s about the transition between life and death, which Eileen talked about every day. She loved a good Greek myth – and it’s a requiem for her.”
