A history of the first wave of independent dance artists in Australia from the 1920s to the1950s.
With chapters on Lola Laban, Maud Allen, Joan Henry & Joan Joske, Sonia Revid, Irene Vera Young, Ruth Bergner & Elizabeth Wiener, Katherine Dunham & Anita Ardell, Gertrud Bodenwieser & Margaret Barr—Nobody’s Muse is a new history of early modern dance through the life and work of those who offered Australians new ideas on how to dance and how to live. These women stoked controversy and challenged orthodoxies. They led independent lives as performers, choreographers and producers. They were part of the European, American and Australian avant-garde. They were important artists in their own time but (mostly) been forgotten in ours.
Expected completion and potential publication date, early 2026