page_title: Eileen Kramer
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Eileen Kramer / Early life
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context_page_description: Eileen Kramer is an Australian dancer, artist, performer, and choreographer. Kramer began by studying singing and music in Sydney in the 1930s, but after attending a performance of the Bodenwieser Ballet in 1940, 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 US for the next 60 years, before returning to Australia where she remains active in the arts as of June 2019.
context_section_description: Eileen Kramer was born and grew up in Mosman Bay with one other sibling, a brother. Her father, a car salesman, began showing signs of alcoholism when Kramer was about 10, leading to her mother leaving and secretly relocating with the children to Coogee when she was 13. Her mother then began working as a store detective at Farmers (now owned by Myer), a department store on George Street.
  In 1936, when her mother remarried, Kramer left home and lived in a shared cottage on Philip Street until 1940 and studied singing at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. To support herself, she worked as an usherette and an artist's model, at one time posing for Norman Lindsay. In 1940, her mother took her to a charity concert which included The Blue Danube, performed by Gertrud Bodenwieser's dance company. 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.
caption: Bodenwieser Ballet in Centennial Park, Sydney, ca. 1939
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