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Eileen Kramer

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Eileen Kramer
Kramer, c. 1952
Born(1914-11-08)8 November 1914
Mosman Bay, New South Wales, Australia
Died(2024-11-15)15 November 2024
(aged 110 years, 7 days)
New South Wales, Australia
EducationSydney Conservatorium of Music
Occupations
  • Ballet dancer
  • choreographer
  • artist
  • actor
Years activec. 1943–2024
Websiteeileen-kramer.com

Eileen Kramer (8 November 1914 – 15 November 2024) was an Australian dancer, artist, performer, choreographer, and supercentenarian. She began by studying singing and music in Sydney in the 1930s, but after attending a performance of the Bodenwieser Ballet in 1940, she immediately decided on a career change to dance. After joining the troupe that had made such an impression on her, she toured around Australia and overseas for the next decade. She then lived and worked in France and the United States for the next 60 years, before returning to Australia at the age of 99, where she remained active in the arts until her death at the age of 110. Back in Australia, Kramer met choreographer/filmmaker Sue Healey, with whom she collaborated in several film and video works.

Early life and education

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Eileen Kramer was born on 8 November 1914,[1] and grew up in Mosman Bay, Sydney, with one sibling, a brother.[2] Her father, a car salesman, began showing signs of alcoholism when Kramer was about 10, leading to her mother leaving and secretly relocating with the children to the suburb of Coogee when Eileen was 13.[2][3] Her mother then began working as a store detective at Farmers (now part of Myer), a department store on George Street.[2]

In 1936, when her mother remarried, Kramer left home and lived in a shared cottage on Phillip Street until 1940 and studied singing at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.[4] To support herself, she worked as an usherette and an artist's model, at one time posing for Norman Lindsay.[2]

In 1940, her mother took her to a charity concert which included "The Blue Danube", performed by Gertrud Bodenwieser's dance company.[2][5] The next day, Kramer sought out Bodenwieser, and after successfully auditioning and completing three years of training, she joined Bodenwieser's main troupe and began her career in professional dance.[6][7] The Bodenwieser style was expressionistic and used the body to show emotion.[8]

Career

[edit]

Kramer toured Australia with the Bodenwieser Ballet for 10 years (from 1943 to 1953[9]).[2][10][11] The group also toured internationally post-war to France, New Zealand, South Africa, and India.[9]

After leaving the troupe in 1953, Kramer travelled to India, then lived and worked in Paris as an artist's model, often for André Lhote and his studio.[9] In 1957, aged 42, she met Israeli-American filmmaker Baruch Shadmi.[2] The two collaborated on a mixed animated and live-action film, for which Kramer hand-made over 400 figures.[2] At a casino in Dieppe, while Shadmi played roulette, she met Louis Armstrong, who taught her to do the twist.[2] While working on their film in the mid-1960s, Shadmi had a stroke, and Kramer effectively put her dance career on hold for 18 years while caring for him in New York.[12][13][2] He died in 1987.[14]

In 1988, Kramer resumed her career and moved to Hinton to live with an old stage friend, before moving to Lewisburg in 1992.[14] There she worked as both dancer and choreographer with the Trillium Performing Arts Collective.[8] In 2008, she self-published her first book, Walkabout Dancer, an account of her life.[6]

In September 2013, Kramer returned to Australia at the age of 99, because she missed the kookaburras[15] and the smell of gum trees.[13] There she met filmmaker/choreographer Sue Healey, with whom she began to collaborate.[8] In 2014, to mark turning 100, she crowdfunded, choreographed, and performed a dance piece called "The Early Ones".[9]

In 2017, she created a dance-drama A Buddha's Wife, inspired by her travels in India, part of a wider work celebrating her life, and supported by the Arts Health Institute.[15]

Kramer signing a copy of Eileen: Stories from the Phillip Street Courtyard in 2019

Kramer's memoir, co-written with Tracey Spring, Eileen: Stories from the Phillip Street Courtyard, was published in November 2018.[16][17] In 2019, she entered a self-portrait for the Archibald Prize, becoming the award's oldest-ever contributor.[18]

In 2022, Kramer made a video while dancing seated on a chair, to the instrumental piece "Eileen" by clarinettist David Orlowsky [de] (of the David Orlowsky Trio) and lutenist David Bergmüller [de], from their album Alter Ego. The video was released in May 2022 and won the "video clip" award in the 2023 Opus Klassik prizes.[19][20][21]

In 2024, Kramer once again worked with Sue Healey, this time in collaboration with composer and musician Laurence Pike, to create Afterworld, which features Kramer's final performance. The basis for the short film was Pike's 2024 album The Undreamt-of-Centre, which he wrote during the COVID-19 pandemic. The music was inspired by Greek mythology, modernist poet Rainer Maria Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus, and Pike's personal experience of grief. Dancers Nadiyah Akbar, Josh Freedman, Benjamin Hancock, Taiga Kita-Leong, and Siobhan Lynch star in the film along with Kramer. The film premiered at the 2025 Sydney Festival, showing from 7 to 11 January at the Neilson Nutshell.[8]

Recognition

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A portrait, The inner stillness of Eileen Kramer by plastic surgeon Andrew Lloyd Greensmith, was a finalist for the Archibald Prize in 2017.[22][23]

Also in 2017, single-channel video portrait (6 minutes 3 seconds) of Kramer by choreographer/filmmaker Sue Healey was a finalist in the Digital Portrait Prize (National Portrait Gallery, Canberra). It was also a finalist in the Blake Prize (Casula Powerhouse, Sydney) in 2018.[24] In September 2018, Healey was awarded the Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film or New Media.[25]

In December 2018, Kramer was the featured guest on ABC's One Plus One interview program.[2]

In 2015, she was nominated as one of the 100 Women of Influence Awards by The Australian Financial Review and Westpac.[26]

Personal life and death

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Kramer never married nor had any children. Her first relationship was with Richard Want, her psychoanalyst, in 1936.[3] She also had a romance with a French diplomat while in India.[3] Kramer later had two extended relationships while living abroad, with Baruch Shadmi (1920–1987) and "rich Southern widower" William "Bill" D. Tuckwiller (died c.2013).[7]

Kramer died in New South Wales on 15 November 2024, a week after her 110th birthday.[1]

Publications

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  • 2008, Walkabout Dancer (Trafford Publishing: ISBN 978-1-4251-7359-3)[27]
  • 2018 (with Tracey Spring), Eileen: Stories from the Phillip Street Courtyard (Melbourne Books: ISBN 978-1-9255-5639-1)[16]

Filmography

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  • 2017: Eileen – short film by Sue Healey[25]
  • 2020: The Witch of Kings Cross as herself (documentary)[28]
  • 2020: The End, as Rita (Episode: "Blood Sandwich")[2]
  • 2022: Eileen (short film; a collaboration between Sue Healey and European musicians David Orlowsky and David Bergmüller.) as the dancer[29]
  • 2024: On View: Icons, by Sue Healey, which premiered at the 2024 Sydney Festival[8]
  • 2025: Afterworld, a collaboration between Healey and composer and musician Laurence Pike, featuring Kramer's final performance.[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Dancer Eileen Kramer, 'longest living woman in NSW', dies aged 110". ABC.net. 15 November 2024. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l One Plus One: Eileen Kramer, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 20 December 2018, retrieved 21 June 2019
  3. ^ a b c Souter, Fenella (2 November 2018). "Bohemian rhapsody: Why there's no stopping this 103-year-old dancer". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  4. ^ Wood, Eileen (11 December 2018). "Book Review: Eileen Stories from the Phillip Street courtyard". The Senior. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
  5. ^ "The extraordinary life of 104-year-old dancer Eileen Kramer". The Spectator. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  6. ^ a b "Walkabout Dancer". Booklore. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  7. ^ a b "BBC Radio 4 – Seriously…, The Art of Now: Breath is Life – Eileen Kramer". BBC. 4 June 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Story, Hannah (2 January 2025). "Eileen Kramer stars in Afterworld by Sue Healey and Laurence Pike at Sydney Festival". ABC News. Retrieved 7 January 2025.
  9. ^ a b c d "At 100, She Is Still Performing In Music Videos". HuffPost Canada. 19 May 2015. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  10. ^ Cormack, Lucy (5 March 2015). "One hundred-year-old dancer Eileen Kramer still taking to the stage". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  11. ^ Nunn, Gary (1 June 2021). "The dancer aged 106 who bans the word 'old'". BBC News. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  12. ^ Fuss, Eloise (1 December 2017). "Meet the 103-year-old dancer still performing, choreographing and making costumes". ABC News. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  13. ^ a b "Returning: Compass". TV Tonight. 11 March 2015. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  14. ^ a b Mackenzie, Peggy (9 September 2013). "Fare thee well, Lovely Lady". Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  15. ^ a b Hardy, Karen (16 October 2017). "Eileen Kramer plans to dance on her 103rd birthday". Canberra Times. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  16. ^ a b Kramer, Eileen; Spring, Trace (2018). Eileen : stories from the Phillip Street courtyard. Melbourne, VIC : Melbourne Books. ISBN 978-1-925556-39-1.
  17. ^ "Eileen". Melbourne Books. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  18. ^ Chettle, Nicole (3 April 2019). "'Just do it if it makes you happy':104-year-old Archibald Prize entrant's life advice". ABC News. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  19. ^ "Opus Klassik Awards 2023". Presto Music. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
  20. ^ "David Orlowsky & David Bergmüller – Eileen (Official Music Video)". Warner Classics. 6 May 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
  21. ^ "Warner Music Central Europe: Warner Music Künstler:innen triumphieren beim OPUS Klassik 2023". Warner Music Germany (in German). 10 October 2023. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
  22. ^ "Andrew Lloyd Greensmith". Archibald Prize 2017. Art Gallery of New South Wales. Retrieved 12 December 2017. Includes image of the portrait
  23. ^ "Unlikely duo pair up for Archibald prize". ABC: Lateline. 28 July 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  24. ^ "Eileen – Digital Portraiture Award". dpa.portrait.gov.au. Archived from the original on 8 March 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  25. ^ a b "Eileen (2017). A film by Sue Healey". Michelle Potter. 18 February 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
  26. ^ "Eileen Kramer, a woman of infuence [sic] – Dance Australia". www.danceaustralia.com.au. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  27. ^ Kramer, Eileen (2008). Walkabout Dancer. Victoria, B.C. : Trafford. ISBN 978-1-4251-7359-3.
  28. ^ "Eileen Kramer". Kanopy. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
  29. ^ "Short film 'Eileen' wins Opus Klassik award". Eileen Kramer.com. 6 June 2022. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
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