Highlights from 2023 – a year in pictures

“People ask me where creativity comes from. To be quite honest, I don’t have the answer. All I can say is that the more attention you pay to life, the more interesting it becomes.”
Life Keeps Me Dancing, Eileen Kramer 2023

January

Eileen kicks off the year with a visit to the newly opened modern wing of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Dances for young choreographer, filmmaker and artist Anya McKee in the garden, as part of a series of portraits Woman’s Work (Anya McKee & Katina Olsen). Signs a publishing contract with Pan Macmillan.

Eileen Kramer posing in a pink kimono with arms outstretched

Eileen dancing with her hands while being filmed by Anya McKee.

February

Celebrating summer with a lunch for friends at beautiful Balmoral beach, not far from where she grew up.

Eileen and friends sitting on the wall at Balmoral.

Eileen and three friends letting sand run through their fingers at Balmoral

Eileen in a dance pose with beach in the background

Eileen at lunch table with Sue Healey on the left and Kylie Melinda Smith on the right.

March, April, May, June

Working away on her memoir for Pan Macmillan. A portrait of Eileen by Kylie Melinda Smith is exhibited at the SH Ervin Gallery as part of the Archibald Prize Salon des Refuses. Enjoys a visit from dancer and choreographer James Batchelor. Some pre-publicity with the Pan Macmillan marketing team for her book, Life Keeps Me Dancing, due to publish in July – filmed at the National Trust’s atmospheric Georgian house ‘Lyndesay’, in Darling Point.

Eileen Kramer portrait by Kylie Melinda Smith

Eileen with James Batchelor [Photo: Sue Healey]

Eileen holding a fan, with the crew after filming an interview

July

Life Keeps Me Dancing hits the shelves.

August, September

Rehearsals for a new film project with Sue Healey. A visit to the Sydney Dance Company’s studios in the Hickson Road arts precinct. And to Sydney’s Chippendale with Shane Carroll – to Thurles Castle, where Eileen stayed when she first arrived back in Australia in 2013, and to Brickfields Cafe across the road, which threw her a party for her 100th birthday.

Eileen directing a scene from a new dance work.

Eileen sitting in an armchair in the sun, wearing a purple coat.

Eileen with two dancers from the Sydney Dance Company.

Eileen standing in front of Brickfields cafe with two young women and a young man.

Eileen and Shane Carroll sitting on a bench outside Thurles Castle.

Eileen sitting on a bench outside Brickfields with other cafe customers.

October

Eileen features in the extraordinary event What Is the City but the People, part of the Sydney Opera House’s 50th birthday celebrations – streamed on the SOH website (Eileen’s journey down the yellow catwalk starts from 22:20). Sue Healey’s video for David Orlowsky & David Bergmüller’s ‘Eileen’ receives the Opus Klassik best music video award at a ceremony in Berlin. Watch the film.