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Selma Odom
Madeleine Boss Lasserre was the first to teach Dalcroze Eurhythmics in Canada. After training in her native Switzerland with composer Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, she introduced this “method for the development of muscular control, rhythmic sense, musical feeling and self expression through music” at the Margaret Eaton School in Toronto. From 1927 to 1977, she taught several generations of students at the Royal Conservatory of Music. There she used movement and gesture to teach the basics of rhythm, pitch, shadings and form. Agile and lithe, she moved back and forth from her piano to the floor where her classes learned music on their bare feet. She gave countless demonstrations for teachers’ organizations, the Women’s Art Association, Hart House Theatre and music groups of all kinds in Ontario. Her students included modern dancer-choreographer Saida Gerrard and pianist Donald Himes, who went on to a multi-faceted career in Dalcroze and Feldenkrais work. Toronto artist Temma Gentles remembers, “Music just flowed out of her fingers. She could improvise and do all kinds of things. The music was just there, like speaking, and to me it was a miracle.” Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland on October 5, 1901, she died in Toronto on August 17, 1998 at the age of 96.
RESOURCE
Dalcroze Society of America
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