Sonia Revid

Sonia Revid
A young white woman with dark hair, cropped at jaw length.
Sonia Revid, from a 1932 Australian newspaper.
Born9 May 1902
Riga, Latvia
Died1945 (aged 42–43)
Melbourne, Australia
NationalityRussian, Australian (naturalized 1937)
OccupationDancer

Sonia Revid (23 Jan 1902 – 8 Aug 1947)[1] was a dancer born in Riga, and based in Melbourne for much of her career.

Early life

Sonia Revid was born in Riga to a Jewish family[1] and lived in Saint Petersburg until she moved to Berlin in 1921. She studied modern dance in Dresden with Mary Wigman.[2][3]

Career

Revid visited relatives in Melbourne in 1932, and stayed to give dance performances[4] and teach dance at her own studio,[5] the Sonia Revid School of Modern Art Dance, later known as the Sonia Revid School of Art, Dance, and Body Culture,[6] the latter name reflecting her shift towards dance as a public health project.[7] One of her students was Australian dancer and choreographer Louise Lightfoot.[8] She spent a year teaching and performing in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1938 and 1939, under the auspices of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA).[9][10][11]

Revid took an interest how dance might improved the lives of needy children in Melbourne,[12] and offered free dance and health classes to children in the Fitzroy neighborhood. She gave benefit recitals, and published a pamphlet about her ideas on the subject, "Do Slum Children Distinguish Light From Dark?" She created a didactic dance programme on oral hygiene, titled Little Fool and Her Adventures, with music by Gounod and Saint-Saëns.[7] She created another topical dance piece, The Bushfire Drama (1940),[13] referencing the severe bushfire season of 1939 in Victoria.[14][15]

Personal life

Revid died in 1945, aged 43 years, in Melbourne. Her papers are archived at the State Library Victoria.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b "Sonia Revid". geni_family_tree. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  2. ^ Brissenden, Alan; Glennon, Keith (2010). Australia Dances: Creating Australian Dance 1945-1965. Wakefield Press. p. 190. ISBN 978-1-86254-802-2.
  3. ^ Wilkinson, Kenneth (4 June 1941). "DANCE RECITAL BY SONIA REVID". Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954). p. 17. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
  4. ^ "Recital of Original Dances". Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954). 25 September 1933. p. 13. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
  5. ^ "NEW SCHOOL OF DANCING A Mary Wigman Follower". Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954). 19 July 1933. p. 16. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
  6. ^ Dixon, Robert; Kelly, Veronica (2008). Impact of the Modern: Vernacular Modernities in Australia 1870s-1960s. Sydney University Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-920898-89-2.
  7. ^ a b Gaylor, Averyl (17 March 2020). "Hidden women of history: Sonia Revid created public health ballet at the height of 'dance fever'". The Conversation. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  8. ^ "Louise Lightfoot and the first Australian Ballet". Cecchetti International Classical Ballet. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  9. ^ "SONIA REVID'S DANCING". Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957). 27 September 1938. p. 5. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
  10. ^ "Radiant Health". Auckland Star. 9 November 1938. p. 15. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Papers Past.
  11. ^ "Modern Art Dance; Miss Sonia Revid; Compelling Interpretations". Auckland Star. 11 November 1938. p. 12. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Papers Past.
  12. ^ "Teaching Children Art of Graceful Movement". Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982). 17 September 1938. p. 36. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  13. ^ "BUSH FIRE DRAMA". Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954). 3 April 1940. p. 8. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
  14. ^ Lindgren, Allana; Ross, Stephen (5 June 2015). The Modernist World. Routledge. p. 262. ISBN 978-1-317-69616-2.
  15. ^ "Dance Compositions". Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954). 4 June 1941. p. 13. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
  16. ^ Card, Amanda (June 1999). "Prominence in obscurity: Sonia Revid in Melbourne 1932-1945". Brolga (10): 7–19.