Trudi Schoop
{{Short description|Comedian dancer and therapist (1903–1999)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Trudi Schoop
| post-nominals =
| image = File:Trudi Schoop, 001.jpg
| native_name_lang =
| birth_date = 1904
| birth_place = Zurich, Switzerland
| death_date = July 14, 1999
| death_place = Van Nuys, California, US
| occupation = Dancer, Comedian and Therapist
}}
Trudi Schoop (October 9, 1904, Zurich, Switzerland – July 14, 1999, Van Nuys, California) {{cite news | first=Myrna| last=Oliver| title=Obituary; Trudi Schoop; Comic Dancer, Mental Illness Therapist: [Home Edition]| date=July 21, 1999| work=Los Angeles Times}} 18. was a Swiss dancer who pioneered the treatment of mental illness with dance therapy.{{cite news | first=Jack | last=Anderson | title=Trudi Schoop, 95, Pioneer In Therapy Using Dance | date=1999-07-23 | url =https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/23/arts/trudi-schoop-95-pioneer-in-therapy-using-dance.html | work =New York Times | access-date = 2008-08-07 }}
Life and work
Born in Switzerland, the daughter of the editor of the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung,{{cite news | title=Comic Dancer | date=1936-01-06 | url =http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,755583,00.html?iid=chix-sphere | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20121025100224/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,755583,00.html?iid=chix-sphere | url-status =dead | archive-date =October 25, 2012 | work =TIME Magazine | access-date = 2008-08-07 }} Her younger sister was Hedi Schoop. Schoop was mostly self-taught, though she did study some ballet and modern dance after she was an established performer. She performed throughout the 1930s and made several tours of the United States, arranged by the impresario Sol Hurok. Schoop, the performer, was often referred to as a female Charlie Chaplin.{{cite news | first=Myrna| last=Oliver| title=Comic dancer Trudi Schoop called female Charlie Chaplin: [Final Edition]| date=July 24, 1999| work=Montreal Gazette}} Montreal, Que. F.13 She often toured often under the moniker, "Trudi Schoop and her Dancing Comedians."{{cite news | first=| last=| title=DANCING COMEDIANS MAKE DEBUT TONIGHT: Trudi Schoop and Her Company From Switzerland to Appear Here in Two Ballets.| date=December 27, 1935| work=New York Times}} 14
Schoop stayed in Switzerland during World War II, and often performed in anti-Fascist cabaret shows. In a tribute article on Schoop, the American Journal of Dance Therapy told of her comic protest performances, "As the Germans marched relentlessly through Europe, her wishful fantasy led her to dance Hitler as the Dying Swan. A black tutu suggested the uniform of the SS and her face was adorned with a mustache. The German consul was outraged, and her own Swiss government was decidedly nervous."{{cite news |last=Chodorow, Govine, Gould, Verebes| title=Honoring and Remembering Trudi Schoop| date=September 1999| work=American Journal of Dance Therapy}} Volume 21, Iss. 2, 1. She resumed touring after the war, but disbanded her dance company in 1947 and moved to Los Angeles, California{{cite news | title=Trudi Schoop | date=1999-08-03 | url =https://www.variety.com/article/VR1117883112.html?categoryid=25&cs=1 | work =Variety | access-date = 2008-08-07 }} to undertake an exploration of dance as therapy for schizophrenic patients.
Among the several California medical institutions where Schoop worked was the Camarillo State Mental Hospital, where she was recommended as a therapist by UCLA neuropsychiatrists who had reviewed her theories. Schoop developed what she called body-ego technique, which used movement to help draw patients out of isolation and help them to respond to, rather than shrink from, human contact.{{cite news | last=Goertzel, May, Salkin, Schoop| title=Body-ego technique: An approach to the schizophrenic patient.| date=1965| work=Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease}} 141, 53-60.
Schoop impacted countless people and is known as one of the founders of dance/movement therapy, based on the dance/movement therapy created by C.G.Jung in 1916. In Los Angeles she worked together with Tina Keller-Jenny.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xywBCwAAQBAJ&q=Authentic+Movement+Tina+Keller&pg=PA33|title=Authentic Movement: Moving the Body, Moving the Self, Being Moved: A Collection of Essays - Volume Two|last=Pallaro|first=Patrizia|date=2007-01-15|publisher=Jessica Kingsley Publishers|isbn=978-1846425868|pages=33|language=en}} Many people who studied with her mentioned her sense of humor, warmth, and love.{{Cite web|url=http://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=theses_dmt|title=Trudi Schoop: Passing on her Legacy (Thesis)|last=Gilbert|first=Jeff}}
She died in Van Nuys, California.
References
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Further reading
- Dance magazine, article, "Trudi's Here Again", (mime Trudi Schoop), February 1938.
- Levy, Fran. 1988. "Trudi Schoop, Dance Movement Therapy: A Healing Art."Reston, Virginia: The American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Recreation.
- Mitchell, Peggy and Schoop, Trudi, "Won't You Join the Dance: A Dancer's Essay into the Treatment of Psychosis", National Press Books, {{ISBN|0874842298}}/9780874842296/0-87484-229-8.
- Young, Therese Adams. "From Dance Mime to Dance Therapy", Thesis (M.A.)--Texas Woman's University, 1986. Microfiche.|bEugene :|cMicroform Publications, College of Human Development and Performance, University of Oregon, |d1988.|e2 microfiches : negative.
External links
- [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt767nd3rb Guide to the Collection on Trudi Schoop.] Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
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