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. Her career spans four continents and a century of creativity.
News
Latest happenings
New book out in August!
For the past six months, Eileen has been beavering away with publisher Pan Macmillan, distilling memories from her long and eventful life into a new 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.
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 film was initially screened for friends at Eileen’s 108th birthday party in November 2022, but continued to evolve over the following months. This…
Sunshine and sparkle for a significant birthday
A ‘great mob’ of friends gathered beside a sparkling Sydney harbour in early November to help Eileen Kramer celebrate 108 years of creativity and comradeship. Those assembled were treated to a performance by Eileen herself, as well as a screening of two films made by Eileen and collaborator Sue Healey: 2021’s The God Tree, and…
Short film ‘Eileen’ – screened to acclaim at New York Dance on Camera Festival – now released
“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.”Sarah L Kaufman, Washington Post, 5 February 2022 Screened at New York’s Lincoln Center on 12 February 2022 during Dance on Camera’s 50th anniversary program,…
Watch
Sue Healey’s exquisite 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).
Eileen’s film The God Tree was released in November 2021, in time for her 107th birthday. Inspired by a monumental Moreton Bay Fig in Glebe, Sydney, it was made with the help of long-time collaborator Sue Healey and featuring music by the legendary Mike Nock.
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 