Heather Gell

Heather Doris Gell MBE (19 May 1896 – 23 October 1988), pron. "Jell", was an Australian kindergarten teacher and early proponent of Dalcroze eurhythmics to Australia. She also worked as a radio broadcaster, television presenter and theatre producer.

Heather Gell

MBE
Born
Heather Doris Gell

(1896-05-19)19 May 1896
Glenelg, South Australia
Died23 October 1988(1988-10-23) (aged 92)
Christies Beach, South Australia
Parent

Early life and education

Gell, born in Glenelg, South Australia on 19 May 1896, was the eldest child of Annie Elizabeth (née Webster) and Adelaide accountant Harry Dickson Gell. She was educated at Tormore House School in North Adelaide. In 1915–16, she studied at the Adelaide Kindergarten Training College (AKTC) which included a course in eurhythmics.[1]

Career

Gell was principal of the Norwood Clayton Montessori School for a few years,[2] while learning piano and teaching eurhythmics at AKTC.[1] She studied at the London School of Dalcroze Eurhythmics (LSDE), completing a two-year certificate in 1923 and scoring the highest marks.[3] On her return to Adelaide, she opened a studio and taught children privately as well as continuing to work with trainee teachers at AKTC.[1] In 1930 she travelled to England to study eurhythmics in schools across the country on behalf of the State government and spend a term at the LSDE.[4] While there, she was awarded a diploma in aural culture by the Royal Academy of Music.[5]

Gell returned to England in 1937 to teach at the LSDE, develop her music knowledge and study theatre production. Back in Adelaide she continued her teaching job at the Elder Conservatorium of Music.[6]

Gell broadcasting from the piano in 1941

From 1938 Gell wrote and presented the Music Through Movement program for the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC).[1] Initially broadcast in South Australia, its reach was extended across Australia in early 1939[1] and was listened to by pupils aged five to nine in some 1,000 classrooms who gained lifelong musical appreciation.[7] At that point, Gell moved to Sydney. A second program followed, Let's All Listen.[8] When the ABC was preparing for the launch of Kindergarten of the Air, Gell served as an advisor, taught the first presenter and was the pianist for the program.[1]

Gell produced The Bluebird at the Minerva Theatre in 1940 as a charity fund-raiser[9] and re-staged in 1948.[10] In 1947 Gell produced a stage adaptation of Water Babies at the Theatre Royal in Sydney. John Meillon and Leonard Thiele were members of the 130-strong cast of mostly children.[11][12]

In 1954 Gell gained a diploma from the Eurythmics Institute in Geneva, qualifying her to train teachers in Australia and was one of 500 who attended the International Eurhythmics Congress in Geneva.[13]

Gell wrote and presented a program for preschool children called Playroom for television station ADS-7 in Adelaide in 1960.[1] Morna Jones, a kindergarten teacher and actress, was Gell's longtime collaborator and co-host of the program.[14] Playroom later ran for seven years on TCN-9 in Sydney.[1]

Gell was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1977 New Year Honours for "service to education in the field of music".[15]

Retirement and death

Gell returned to Adelaide in 1982 where she lived in "semi-retirement".[1] She died on 23 October 1988 at Christies Beach, South Australia.[1] She never married.

References
  1. Jones, Helen, "Gell, Heather Doris (1896–1988)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 22 December 2021
  2. "Local Mems". Bunyip. No. 3, 668. South Australia. 20 December 1918. p. 3. Retrieved 23 December 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. "Music and Musicians". News. Vol. I, no. 59. South Australia. 29 September 1923. p. 2. Retrieved 23 December 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "To Study Abroad". The Register News – pictorial. Vol. XCV, no. 27, 763. South Australia. 8 August 1930. p. 24. Retrieved 23 December 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. "Before the Public". News. Vol. XVI, no. 2, 354. South Australia. 2 February 1931. p. 1 (Home Edition). Retrieved 23 December 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. "Ideas from Contest". The Mail (Adelaide). Vol. 26, no. 1, 345. South Australia. 5 March 1938. p. 16. Retrieved 23 December 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. "Music and the Child: The Magic of Heather Gell", ABC Weekly, ABC, 2 (37), 14 September 1940, retrieved 23 December 2021
  8. "Children's Musical "Godmother"". Jerilderie Herald and Urana Advertiser. New South Wales, Australia. 5 November 1942. p. 4. Retrieved 23 December 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. "At the Stage Door: Sydney May Get Permanent Ballet Company", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, Wireless Press, 35 (48): 9, 30 November 1940, retrieved 23 December 2021
  10. "Women's Letters", The Bulletin, John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 69 (3587): 19, 10 November 1948
  11. Thomas, Wilfrid (29 November 1947), "Radio Roundabout", ABC Weekly, ABC, 9 (48): 4, retrieved 23 December 2021
  12. "Women's Letters", The Bulletin, John Haynes and J.F. Archibald, 68 (3539): 21, 10 December 1947
  13. "Diploma for Teacher of Eurythmics". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 36, 483. New South Wales, Australia. 25 November 1954. p. 8 (Women's Section). Retrieved 23 December 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. Cora Dove (1986). The First 25 Years of Television in South Australia. p. 16.
  15. "Miss Heather Doris Gell". It's an Honour. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
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