Dancer, choreographer, costumer designer, artist and writer
Eileen Kramer was born in 1914 and grew up in Mosman, Sydney, a child of the bush and the harbour. She died in November 2024 at the age of 110, after a career spanning four continents and more than a century of creativity.
News
Super-centenarian!
It was another sparkling day on Sydney Harbour when Eileen’s friends gathered to celebrate her 110th birthday.
Short film ‘Eileen’ wins Opus Klassik award
“She shatters all manner of expectations, and it’s exhilarating. She is uninhibited, at her ease, vivacious, drawing you in with her naturalness and making you feel you’re involved in life itself.”…
Eileen completes film dedicated to Gertrud Bodenwieser
‘Waterlily Variations’ is inspired by a short dance created by Gertrud Bodenwieser in 1925, and performed by Eileen in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Made with long-time collaborator Sue Healey,…
“The best years of my life”
Eileen spent 2023 beavering away with publisher Pan Macmillan, distilling memories from her long and eventful life into her latest book.
Charming, funny and inspirational, it follows Eileen’s adventures from bohemian Sydney across India and Pakistan, Europe and America, then back home to Sydney in 2013, aged 99, for ‘the best years of my life’.
Available in all good bookstores and online.
Watch
Catch a glimpse of Eileen and her extraordinary life in this short video produced by Pan Macmillan to mark publication of her book Life Keeps Me Dancing in July 2023.
Sue Healey’s award-winning short film was created as a music video for the track ‘Eileen’, from the 2022 album Alter Ego by David Orlowsky (clarinet) and David Bergmüller (lute).
Dance
Bodenwieser style
Eileen first saw the Bodenwieser Dance Company perform in 1940, at the age of 25. “Whatever it was in my psyche that recognises its own told me immediately that this was for me. The next day I found out where Madame Bodenwieser was teaching and went there straightaway to see whether I could become a student of the dance.” By the end of 1940, she was given her first solo, ‘Spring’, and was designing costumes for the company as well. Her first performance as a professional member of the company was in 1943.
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Eileen Kramer 