Olive Smithells Explained

Olive Smithells
Birth Name:Olive Frances Whitta
Birth Date:24 October 1920
Birth Place:Christchurch, New Zealand
Death Place:Dunedin, New Zealand
Relatives:Arthur Smithells (father-in-law)
Occupation:Dancer, physical education instructor, health educator

Olive Frances Smithells (née Whitta; 24 October 1920 – 7 June 2007) was a New Zealand dancer and health instructor.

Early life

Olive Frances Whitta was born in Christchurch on 24 October 1920,[1] the daughter of Stephen V. Whitta and Margaret Ewing Whitta. Her father was born in Cornwall.[2] She was active as a Girl Guide[3] [4] and trained as a physical education teacher at Christchurch Teachers' College from 1938 to 1940.[5]

Career

Smithells was a lecturer in health and physical education at Wellington Teachers' College and Dunedin Teachers' College, and later at the University of Otago. She edited the Bulletin of the New Zealand Physical Education Society, which became the Journal of Physical Education New Zealand. She wrote two books, Fatness, Figures and Fitness (1967)[6] and an exercise guide, Look After Your Back, Streamline Your Front (1970, illustrated by Els Noordhof),[7] and co-authored another, Individual needs in physical education (1974, with Philip Smithells).[8]

Smithells was a member of the Wellington New Dance Group from 1945 and 1948,[9] performing along with her husband Philip Smithells, Rona Bailey, and Edith Sipos.[10] Their dance works included Hiroshima (1947), Monotony Chorus, The Dance of Two Women, and Sabotage in a Factory.[11] [12] Shirley Horrocks directed a documentary film about the group, Dance of the Instant: The New Dance Group, 1945–1947 (2009).[13]

Personal life

Olive Whitta married English-born physical education professor Philip Ashton Smithells[14] in 1944, five days after his first marriage ended in divorce.[15] They had three sons. Both Smithellses were practising Quakers and active in the cause of pacifism.[16] Philip was a founder of the University of Otago's School of Physical Education, and the university's Smithells Gymnasium is named in his honour.[17] Olive Smithells was widowed when Philip died in 1977, and she died in Dunedin on 7 June 2007, aged 86 years.[1]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Cemeteries search . Dunedin City Council . 30 May 2020.
  2. Web site: Obituary. 16 July 1926. The Advertiser. 2020-04-13.
  3. News: Guide Notes. 21 April 1934. Press. April 13, 2020. 7. Papers Past.
  4. News: Girl Guides' Fete a Pleasant Gathering. 2 December 1935. Press. April 13, 2020. 9. Papers Past.
  5. Stothart. Bob. 2007. Obituary: Olive Smithells, 1920–2007. Journal of Physical Education New Zealand. 40. 8. ProQuest.
  6. Book: Smithells, Olive. Fatness, Figures, and Fitness. Thorsons. 1967. 0722501358. New Zealand.
  7. Book: Smithells. Olive. Look after your back, streamline your front. Noordhof. Els. 1970. Dunedin, N.Z. : John McIndoe. en.
  8. Book: Smithells. Philip A.. Individual needs in physical education. Smithells. Olive. 1974. Heinemann Educational Books. Physical education monographs. Auckland.
  9. News: New Dance Group; Experimental Themes Presented. 3 November 1945. Evening Post. 13 April 2020. 12. Papers Past.
  10. Web site: Dance of the Instant: the New Dance Group – High calibre documentary about innovative and controversial 1940s dance group. Cheesman. Sue. Theatreview. 2020-04-13.
  11. Book: Schultz, Marianne. https://books.google.com/books?id=UwXgCgAAQBAJ&q=Olive+Smithells&pg=PA76. Moving Oceans: Celebrating Dance in the South Pacific. 2017-09-19. Routledge. 978-1-317-34169-7. Buck. Ralph. 76–79. en. Tracing the Steps of Modern and Contemporary Dance in Twentieth-Century New Zealand. Rowe. Nicholas.
  12. Card, Amanda. "Dancing Modernists in Oceania", in Allana Lindgren and Stephen Ross, eds., The Modernist World (Routledge 2015).
  13. Web site: Arty facts: Spotlight on dance. 2009-08-20. Otago Daily Times Online News. en. 2020-04-13.
  14. News: New Zealander Will Speak Here on Physical Education. 1956-01-05. Iowa City Press-Citizen. 2020-04-13. 3. Newspapers.com.
  15. Book: Macdonald, Charlotte. Strong, Beautiful and Modern: National Fitness in Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, 1935–1960. 2013. UBC Press. 978-0-7748-2528-3. 196. en.
  16. Web site: Smithells, Philip Ashton. McEldowney. Dennis. 2000. Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. en. 2020-04-13.
  17. Web site: Gymnasiums. University of Otago. en. 2020-04-13.

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