Heather Gell and music education in the community

Abstract

Kindergartener and Dalcroze teacher, Heather Gell (1896-1988), brought music to thousands of Australian children and adults. The community touched by Gell was vast: it included her classes in studios and teacher training colleges, 'listeners in' to her radio programs, viewers of her television programs, Dalcroze trainees, and people in her theatrical productions. This paper focuses on Gell's work outside institutions and colleges, namely her studio classes in the community for children and adults, and her productions. Gell was a talented and imaginative teacher. Entrepreneurial and opportunistic, she used networks of support, and her connections with people of influence to achieve her educational goals. She also took advantage of the electronic technologies of the day. Evidence for this has come through interviews with former students, memoirs, letters, newspaper cuttings, scrapbooks, photographs, archival material, Gell's writings, syllabi from Departments of Education, and personal contact with Gell herself. Hers is not a conventional story as she was not employed full-time by any state department of education or institution, but worked all her life as a freelance specialist in Dalcroze Eurhythmics.

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