Irene Vera Young
Irene Vera Young | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Irene Vera Young, in the 1930s. | |
| Born | Irene Vera Carter 1895 Bowral, New South Wales |
| Died | 19 June 1975 |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Occupation | Dancer |
Irene Vera Young (1895 – 19 June 1975), born Irene Vera Carter, was an Australian dancer and dance educator.
Early life
[edit]Irene Vera Carter was born in Bowral, New South Wales, the daughter of Arthur Edward Hanslow Carter and Emily Pryor Barton Carter. She attended a convent school in Wagga Wagga. From 1926 to 1932, she lived in New York City, training in modern dance as a member of the Sara Mildred Strauss Dancers.[1]
Career
[edit]After she returned to Australia from New York in 1932, Young ran a dance and movement school in Sydney.[2][3] She gave modern "German dance"[4] performances and lectures as a solo artist,[5] and with her Motion Choir.[6][7] Her style of dancing was likened to (or sometimes contrasted with) that of Mary Wigman.[8] "Dance, for Miss Young, is not primarily, or necessarily, a matter of the legs," explained a 1934 reviewer, adding that in one work, "all the dancers stood rooted to the spot with widely-spread green skirts to emphasize their stationary state."[9]
In 1934, she danced the title role in Oscar Wilde's Salome, in a production created by Raoul Cardamatis, with original music by Ramsay Pennicuick. Young "proved herself to be not only a dancer of genius, which is already well known, but an actress of marked ability," commented the report in the Australian Women's Weekly.[10] She danced in a Doris Fitton production of George Bernard Shaw's Candida in 1937.[11]
Young toured in Japan in 1935. She won a gold medal for her dancing at the International Dance Competition, held in conjunction with the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.[12][13] In 1941, she and Austrian dancer Gertrud Bodenwieser organized the Australian Association of the Creative Dance. She later published a guide, A System of Body Culture for Young and Old.[1]
Personal life
[edit]Irene Vera Carter married solicitor Charles Throsby Young in 1914.[14] Their daughter, Barbara, born in 1915, danced with her mother's Motion Choir in the 1930s.[9][15] Irene Vera Young died in 1975, aged 80 years. Her papers are in the State Library of New South Wales.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Irene Vera Young - papers, 1901-1964, State Library of New South Wales.
- ^ "Irene Vera Young". The Australian Live Performance Database. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
- ^ Fisher, Lynn (June 1995). "Irene Vera Young and the early modern dance in Sydney". Brolga (2): 7–29.
- ^ "GERMAN DANCE". Sun (Sydney, NSW : 1910 - 1954). 16 March 1936. p. 3. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
- ^ "IRENE VERA YOUNG". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 13 August 1938. p. 6. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
- ^ "IRENE VERA YOUNG". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 14 March 1936. p. 9. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
- ^ "IRENE VERA YOUNG". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 3 February 1934. p. 8. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
- ^ "DANCE AND VERSE". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 25 October 1933. p. 17. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
- ^ a b "DANCE RECITAL". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 1 August 1934. p. 18. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
- ^ "Irene Vera Young... As "Salome"". Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982). 10 November 1934. p. 21. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
- ^ "SHAW COMEDY REVIVED". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 13 September 1937. p. 6. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "IRENE VERA YOUNG". Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 - 1950). 28 October 1937. p. 9. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
- ^ "AUSTRALIAN Dancer Back From ABROAD". Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982). 13 February 1937. p. 34. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
- ^ "A DANCE RECITAL". Daily Advertiser (Wagga Wagga, NSW : 1911 - 1954). 19 February 1934. p. 3. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
- ^ "DANCE RECITAL IN OPEN AIR". Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). 13 March 1939. p. 5. Retrieved 2 April 2020 – via Trove.
