Eileen Kramer

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 Eileen Kramer was born on 8 November 1914, Her mother then began working as a store detective at Farmers (now part of Myer), a department store on George Street. To support herself, she worked as an usherette and an artist's model, at one time posing for Norman Lindsay. 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. The Bodenwieser style was expressionistic and used the body to show emotion. The group also toured internationally post-war to France, New Zealand, South Africa, and India. In 1957, aged 42, she met Israeli-American filmmaker Baruch Shadmi. There she worked as both dancer and choreographer with the Trillium Performing Arts Collective.

In September 2013, Kramer returned to Australia at the age of 99, because she missed the kookaburras and the smell of gum trees. There she met filmmaker/choreographer Sue Healey, with whom she began to collaborate. In 2019, she entered a self-portrait for the Archibald Prize, becoming the award's oldest-ever contributor.

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

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.

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. In September 2018, Healey was awarded the Australian Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film or New Media.

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

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

Personal life and death Kramer never married nor had any children. Her first relationship was with Richard Want, her psychoanalyst, in 1936.

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

Publications 2008, Walkabout Dancer (Trafford Publishing: ) 2018 (with Tracey Spring), Eileen: Stories from the Phillip Street Courtyard (Melbourne Books: )

Filmography 2017: Eileen – short film by Sue Healey 2020: The End, as Rita (Episode: "Blood Sandwich") 2024: On View: Icons, by Sue Healey, which premiered at the 2024 Sydney Festival 2025: Afterworld, a collaboration between Healey and composer and musician Laurence Pike, featuring Kramer's final performance.