Australia’s oldest dancer, Eileen Kramer, has died just a week after celebrating her 110th birthday

Australia’s oldest dancer and choreographer has died ‘peacefully’ just a week after celebrating her 110th birthday.

Eileen Stellar Kramer, who was believed to be the oldest woman in New South Wales, was remembered as a “pioneer” and national treasure after her death on Friday.

The beloved artist was born in Sydney on November 8, 1914 and devoted much of her life to performing in Australia and around the world.

She first made her mark in ballet in Australia around the time she turned 27 and before touring the world, living and working in Paris, London and New York, before finally returning to Sydney at the age of 99.

True to form, Ms. Kramer expressed her love for dance right to the end.

In an interview to mark her centenary celebrations 10 years ago, she said she had never shied away from her growing years or used them as an excuse to forego her morning duties.

‘I don’t care. I’m 100!,” she said. ‘I am liberated. I don’t always have to be 35.’

She attributed the unusual trajectory of her life to seeing, at the age of 24, a performance by the Bodenwieser Ballet in Sydney, run by Viennese immigrant Madame Gertrud Bodenwieser, who had fled to Australia via Colombia after being exposed to the Nazis. had escaped.

Australia’s oldest dancer and choreographer, Eileen Kramer, performs during a full dress rehearsal of her work The Early Ones at a theater in Sydney’s north in 2015. She died on Friday, just a week after celebrating her 110th birthday.

Ms. Kramer tried out for the group and was accepted into the classes.

She recalled feeling “free” after her first session and joining the company within three years.

Although called the Bodenwieser Ballet, the group was considered Australia’s first truly influential modern dance company, and despite her lack of classical training, Ms Kramer discovered she had talent.

‘It was not a wild, unfettered movement; there was a clear technique to do. It just suited me,” she said.

As she reached her senior years, she said she was still working on her ballet exercises, although admittedly working from the comfort of her bed most mornings.

‘But I do get up and do pliés and stuff. “Some of the foot exercises in classical ballet are really good for strengthening your feet,” she said in 2015.

“And I need it now because I can only see in one eye, which affects my balance.”

Ms Kramer attended the 50th anniversary celebrations at the Sydney Opera House last year

Ms. Kramer remembers touring Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India with the Bodenwieser group before founding her own company.

“I was always interested in India and when we toured there I think I got a taste for India,” she said.

‘In Pakistan someone told me I could paint. Then I found myself in a pavilion… painting scenes from Paris. I had two assistants. So I went ahead and did it.”

In Europe she earned money as an artist’s model, something she had done in Sydney for the Australian painter Norman Lindsay.

The globetrotting artist is remembered as a pioneer and national treasure

Mrs. Kramer subsequently married and moved to New York with her filmmaker husband, but gave up dancing when he suffered a stroke and cared for him for 18 years until his death.

She then returned to performing, but at the age of 99, following the death of another partner, she decided to come home to Australia.

‘I started thinking about kookaburras. The smell of gum trees,” she said.

“It’s normal to return to your own country.”

In a statement, Ms Kramer’s legal guardians told the ABC on Friday that she was a “trailblazer” and “true creative spirit” and that she died “peacefully”.

“She is the last dancer of the Bodenwieser era, she was the longest living woman in NSW and most likely the longest living dancer internationally.”