Modern dance pioneer had Cavan roots
Dear Editor,
I am currently researching a biography of modern dance pioneer Erina Brady, who was born in Germany in 1891, to a Cavan father named Terence Brady.
Her German mother had an Irish grandfather, named O'Reilly. Erina Brady came to Ireland in 1938, and set up her own "Irish School of Dance Art" on Dublin's Harcourt Street.
She put on many modern dance shows at the Peacock Theatre (collaborating with Austin Clarke, among others), at the Gaiety, and even had Eamon De Valera open one of her shows at the Mansion House.
Her cousin Constance Brady, from Cavan, also attended her dance classes.
Erina Brady was part of a colourful "Emergency" Bohemian milieu which included the White Stag Art Group, composer Brian Boydell, and the poet John Betjeman.
I would be very grateful if any of Erina Brady's relatives, or people who knew or know her relatives could get in touch with me to help shine some light on this forgotten artist's life and work.
I hope to expand the detail on this forgotten chapter of Irish cultural history in my 2006 book "Irish Moves, an illustrated history of dance and physical theatre in Ireland".
I can be contacted at deir@indigo.ie, and at the telephone number 01-6449596.
With kind regards,
Dr Deirdre Mulrooney
For more of your letters, see this week's Anglo-Celt.
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