Sonia Revid
{{short description|Australian dancer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sonia Revid
| image = SoniaRevid1932.png
| alt = A young white woman with dark hair, cropped at jaw length.
| caption = Sonia Revid, from a 1932 Australian newspaper.
| other_names =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 9 May 1902
| birth_place = Riga, Latvia
| death_date = {{Death year and age|1945|1902}}
| death_place = Melbourne, Australia
| nationality = Russian, Australian (naturalized 1937)
| occupation = Dancer
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Sonia Revid (23 Jan 1902 – 8 Aug 1947){{Cite web |title=Sonia Revid |url=https://www.geni.com/people/Sonia-Revid/5272750952480046665 |access-date=2022-05-07 |website=geni_family_tree |language=en-US}} 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 and lived in Saint Petersburg until she moved to Berlin in 1921. She studied modern dance in Dresden with Mary Wigman.{{Cite book|last1=Brissenden|first1=Alan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_Ve0H7Q3lUC&q=Sonia+Revid&pg=PA190|title=Australia Dances: Creating Australian Dance 1945-1965|last2=Glennon|first2=Keith|date=2010|publisher=Wakefield Press|isbn=978-1-86254-802-2|pages=190|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Wilkinson|first=Kenneth|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article244993172|title=DANCE RECITAL BY SONIA REVID|date=1941-06-04|work=Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954)|access-date=2020-04-02|pages=17|via=Trove}}
Career
Revid visited relatives in Melbourne in 1932, and stayed to give dance performances{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205107319|title=Recital of Original Dances.|date=1933-09-25|work=Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954)|access-date=2020-04-02|pages=13|via=Trove}} and teach dance at her own studio,{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article245417305|title=NEW SCHOOL OF DANCING A Mary Wigman Follower|date=1933-07-19|work=Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954)|access-date=2020-04-02|pages=16|via=Trove}} the Sonia Revid School of Modern Art Dance, later known as the Sonia Revid School of Art, Dance, and Body Culture,{{Cite book|last1=Dixon|first1=Robert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tB5VcdRYu8oC&q=Sonia+Revid&pg=PA31|title=Impact of the Modern: Vernacular Modernities in Australia 1870s-1960s|last2=Kelly|first2=Veronica|date=2008|publisher=Sydney University Press|isbn=978-1-920898-89-2|pages=31|language=en}} the latter name reflecting her shift towards dance as a public health project.{{Cite web|url=http://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-sonia-revid-created-public-health-ballet-at-the-height-of-dance-fever-132978|title=Hidden women of history: Sonia Revid created public health ballet at the height of 'dance fever'|last=Gaylor|first=Averyl|date=17 March 2020|website=The Conversation|language=en|access-date=2020-04-02}} One of her students was Australian dancer and choreographer Louise Lightfoot.{{Cite web|url=https://cicb.org/louise-lightfoot/|title=Louise Lightfoot and the first Australian Ballet|website=Cecchetti International Classical Ballet|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-02}} 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).{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article12491983|title=SONIA REVID'S DANCING|date=1938-09-27|work=Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957)|access-date=2020-04-02|pages=5|via=Trove}}{{Cite news|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19381109.2.129.5?items_per_page=10&page=2&phrase=2&query=Sonia+Revid&snippet=true|title=Radiant Health|date=9 November 1938|work=Auckland Star|access-date=April 2, 2020|page=15|via=Papers Past}}{{Cite news|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19381111.2.124.1?items_per_page=10&page=3&phrase=2&query=Sonia+Revid&snippet=true|title=Modern Art Dance; Miss Sonia Revid; Compelling Interpretations|date=11 November 1938|work=Auckland Star|access-date=April 2, 2020|page=12|via=Papers Past}}
Revid took an interest how dance might improved the lives of needy children in Melbourne,{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51603902|title=Teaching Children Art of Graceful Movement|date=1938-09-17|work=Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982)|access-date=2020-04-02|pages=36}} 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. She created another topical dance piece, The Bushfire Drama (1940),{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article204422768|title=BUSH FIRE DRAMA.|date=1940-04-03|work=Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954)|access-date=2020-04-02|pages=8|via=Trove}} referencing the severe bushfire season of 1939 in Victoria.{{Cite book|last1=Lindgren|first1=Allana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YFvLCQAAQBAJ&q=Sonia+Revid&pg=PA262|title=The Modernist World|last2=Ross|first2=Stephen|date=2015-06-05|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-69616-2|pages=262|language=en}}{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205160413|title=Dance Compositions|date=1941-06-04|work=Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954)|access-date=2020-04-02|pages=13|via=Trove}}
Personal life
Revid died in 1945, aged 43 years, in Melbourne. Her papers are archived at the State Library Victoria.{{Cite journal|last=Card|first=Amanda|date=June 1999|title=Prominence in obscurity: Sonia Revid in Melbourne 1932-1945|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/52114952|journal=Brolga|issue=10|pages=7–19}}
References
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{{Subject bar|portal1=Biography|portal2=Australia}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Revid, Sonia}}
Category:Australian female dancers
Category:Soviet emigrants to Germany