VILKAVISKIS
A small town in Southern Lithuania
Where the Jewish Community is no more
A small town in Southern Lithuania
Where the Jewish Community is no more
Sara Gaskel Album
1904-1974
1904-1974
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| From left to right Salomon Gaskel-Haskel his sister standing Raya with Alek and her husband Reuven Schmidt Greta standing and Anna nee Karnovsky in 1937 | Young Sonia sitting | Young pioneers | Young pioneers Marianpole |
GASKELYTE, Sara (1904-1974)
Gaskelyte, Sara, (known as Sonia Gaskell), ballet teacher (Vilkaviskis (Lithuania, Russia) 04.14.1904 - Paris (France) 09/07/1974. Daughter of Solomon Gaskelyte, grain merchant, and Anna Karnovsky. Married about 1922 Abraham Goldenson, mathematician and philosopher. Following divorce (09/05/1936) married on 11/01/1939 by Philipp Heinrich Bauchhenss (1894-1948), interior. Both marriages were childless.
picture Gaskel, Sara
Sara Gaskelyte grew up as the second oldest of five daughters in a wealthy Jewish-Russian family. Her father was a grain merchant, who was far from home and around traveled through Russia and Siberia. Names in the parental home arts and culture plays an important role. She played the mother of Sara piano and took herself from her eighth successfully ballet. In 1914 the family moved Gaskelyte from Lithuania to Kharkov in the Ukraine. Sara visited a high school, where she skipped a class and therefore already graduated from high school at age fifteen. At school she developed a talent for writing, and it was her dream to be a writer.
At an early age, Sara felt attracted to Zionism, especially since the family Gaskelyte constantly suffered from anti-Semitism. The outbreak of the October Revolution in 1917 and the subsequent civil war brought little improvement herein. Kharkov changed several times of occupation, and violence against Jews was the order of the day. Sara wanted to go to Palestine, and already in 1919 left the young girl to the south of Russia in an attempt to travel there overland. They did not, however, beyond the Caucasus, as the route turned out to be blocked. Eventually they arrive in Palestine until 1921. Gaskelyte worked under primitive conditions in the newly founded Kibbutz 'Ein Harod "the lake of Tiberias, where she helped the draining of wetlands. Here met Gaskelyte about 1922 Abraham Goldenson, a few years older than she was. He was a mathematician and philosopher, and his dream was to become a professor at the Sorbonne in Paris. Gaskelyte had great admiration for his intellectual capabilities and married him.
In 1924, the couple from Palestine on a freighter to Marseille thence to travel to Paris. Here Goldenson grabbed his studies again, so Gaskelyte in both their livelihood was provided. Since the French language still insufficiently managed, it seemed better that her dancing to do than writing. Sonia Gaskell - as it probably around that time was called - began to act, while simultaneously took dance lessons to improve her technique. Its two main teachers were Ljubov Egorova, a former prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, and Leo Staats, the leader of the Paris Opera Ballet. Gaskell was also a great admirer of the Russian ballet leader Sergei Diaghilev. Except as a member of various ensembles, she also acted in nightclubs. Together with a friend she had an acrobatic act, under the name "Ariane et Arielle ', which it to the Côte d'Azur and in Italy occurred.
Gaskell's marriage to Goldenson, meanwhile, was getting worse and finally after a few years in divorce. Gaskell threw himself entirely to dance. To be as slim as possible to stay she kept to a strict diet. This, however, weakened her resistance and she walked tuberculosis. Over a year they stayed in a sanatorium just outside Paris. After her recovery Gaskell decided to focus primarily on teaching instead of action, and about 1936 she opened on the Champs Elysées her own ballet studio "Les ballets de Paris'. Soon she was included in the artistic environment of Paris. So visited the French painter and sculptor André Derain arranged her studio and she came into contact with the circle around the poet and writer Jean Cocteau. Besides teaching she made various choreographies and several ballets movie with her former teacher Staats.
In 1937 Gaskell met at the World Exhibition in Paris Amsterdam interior Heini Bauchhenss. Early 1939 Gaskell married with him, which they acquired the Dutch nationality. Even before the outbreak of the Second World War, the couple moved to Amsterdam. There began Gaskell soon again to teach initially in a studio at the Kerkstraat and from 1940 to Zomerdijkstraat. She and her husband moved into a flat above the ballet studio.
Gaskell was a demanding teacher and was known for its discipline and perfectionism. She worked hard and expected the same from her dancers. During the German occupation had Gaskell because of her Jewish background hiding. She remained teaching in a ballet studio, temporarily on behalf of someone else stood. In 1942 she had a Jewish student in the class because of stress and fatigue sat crying on the floor after a fall. Gaskell demanded that they would repeat the exercise: 'Do you want to be a dancer after the war? Remember, that nobody will ask you what you've suffered. It will require that you dance well '(Hague Post, 03/14/1959). The later famous choreographer Rudi van Dantzig said about her teaching: "Madam people could churn out. She also gave me from the ground up "(Utrecht, 163).
In 1945, after the liberation, a small ballet company founded Gaskell on, with twelve dancers: Studio '45. Lack of money was the company after six months to exist. Gaskell then made a number of study tours, including in 1947 to New York, where she was impressed by the modern dance techniques of Martha Graham.
After her husband Bauchhenss in March 1948 was deceased, founded Gaskell is, more than ever, in her work. In January 1949 she was asked in Rotterdam a lecture on the history of the dance show. She decided this lecture, "Three centuries of dance ', to illustrate with some dancing. The performance was a success, and there was an expansion of the repertoire. The concept grew in 1950 into a full ballet group - complete with orchestra - under the name Ballet Recital I. Lack of money led however to the performances in 1951 were to be discontinued. Gaskell then went to Paris, where she temporarily moved in with one of her sisters. In June 1952, she was now again returned to the Netherlands - was accompanied by her revived under the name Ballet Recital II.
In the fifties Gaskell was one of the parties in what is the "ballet war was called. The Dutch dance theater was then dominated by the so-called 'ballet matriarchy "(Utrecht, 162): a few women who each were in charge of a private company. Besides that Gaskell had to Mascha Weeme, leader of the Ballet of the Low Countries, Françoise Adret of the Ballet of the Dutch Opera, and Hans Snoek of the Scapino Ballet. The "ballet war" was caused by the desire of the Dutch government to address this fragmentation to an end by a national ballet company to be established. To Weeme, Adret Gaskell and competed for the prize to the most: in charge of this newly formed company.
Gaskell drew in the "ballet war" ended the longest straw. She received on 1 September 1954 on the recommendation of a committee of international experts, the artistic director of the Dutch Ballet, that The Hague as the seat was assigned. The group consisted of 32 dancers - most from Ballet Recital - and received government grants 120,000 guilders. The groups of order Weeme and Adret continued existence incidentally, in Amsterdam.
Gaskell wanted the Dutch Ballet 'a dance alive museum "setting (Utrecht, 162). Her goal was both romantic classical ballets and contemporary works on stage to bring. They expanded the repertoire it also accelerates out: between October 1954 and June 1961 were only sixteen classical masterpieces rehearsed. Gaskell also gave young Dutch choreographers like Rudi van Dantzig and Jaap Flier the chance to present their own work. She continued teaching itself, but because of the subsidy could also invite leading foreign guest lecturers.
Gaskell's passion was accompanied by rigor and inflexibility, with the result that between 1954 and 1961 several times seriously conflicted with her dancers. Also five business leaders left the ballet company within one year after disagreement. In 1959 the bomb burst really: after a violent conflict with Gaskell decided a significant number of the Dutch Ballet dancers to divest itself and a private company to set up: the Dutch Dance Theatre. Among the departure knew were among others Hans van Manen, Alexandra Radius and Rudi van Dantzig - the latter would otherwise after a season with the Dutch Ballet return.
For Gaskell was the establishment of the Dutch Dance Theatre a blow, not only in the emotional sense - she considered her students and her children - but also in practical terms: over a third of all the dancers left the Dutch Ballet. The soloists vacant places were occupied by inexperienced dancers as Sonja van Beers, Leonie Kramer and Olga de Haas. According to some, this sudden promotion that is responsible for many of these young dancers prematurely opbrandden (Van Schaik, 96).
Meanwhile, in April 1959 the Ballet of the Low Countries and the Ballet of the Dutch Opera merged into the Amsterdams Ballet, led by Mascha in Weeme, but that company was plagued by conflict. In 1961 merged the Amsterdams Ballet and the Dutch Ballet in turn to the Dutch National Ballet, which was established in Amsterdam. Gaskell was artistic director and Ter Weeme got control over the ballets for the opera. This collaboration was soon broken in 1962 went after a high ascending order Weeme conflict sick. In the same year became the business manager HJ Waage off after a fight.
Gaskell act as artistic director of the National Ballet differed essentially not by it with the Dutch Ballet policy: tradition with innovation. The major difference between the two groups was the scale. The National Ballet was significantly greater than the Dutch Ballet, so Gaskell could have more dancers and the repertoire could continue to expand. She brought full-length classical ballets on stage, like Swan Lake (1965), but also produced modern pieces like Shirah (1962) by the American choreographer Pearl Lang. Van Dantzig in 1967 besides Romeo and Juliet performed, the first full-length ballet of a Dutch choreographer.
This scale was not easy for Gaskell. In the early years of her career were the companies been so small, that it is a mother's role was fitting, could deal with the "issues, love problems and ailments of the dancers. But the Dutch National Ballet was "a company, more businesslike and sober" (Boswinkel (1969)). Moreover Gaskell loved to do everything in their own hands. She could not or would not delegate, which in a large group as the National Ballet for many problems caused. The quarrels with Ter Weeme and Waage were only the first in a long series of conflicts.
Even Gaskell's departure at the National Ballet went far from smoothly. The intention was that, during a transitional period of two years, its successors Rudi van Dantzig and Robert Kaesen would act, but in 1968 was a conflict over the production of The Sleeping Beauty so high that Gaskell prematurely left the National Ballet. "Getting out of the ballet has cost me a lot of misery. I had prepared there, but when the time came, I got a slump that lasted for months, "she said later (Boswinkel (1969)). On 9 October 1969, Gaskell greatly honored, but this ceremony had a significantly different character than those at its twentieth anniversary in 1966 as a ballet teacher. Everything was to note that the relationships within the Dutch National Ballet in three years had been thoroughly disrupted. So hurried Gaskell in her acceptance speech a word about her successors.
After her departure Gaskell settled in Paris, where she taught at freelance dance teachers. At the invitation she also worked occasionally in Rome, Israel and Florence. The training of dancers as they considered it "from generation to generation transmission of a message, the realization that you are a carrier of something greater than yourself '(Boswinkel (1972)). In 1969 Gaskell director of the dance department of UNESCO. Commissioned by the NCRV she directed a number of television further documents based on books of the Bible, such as Job (1969) and Song (1970). Gaskell died in July 1974 after an illness in a hospital in Paris. She was cremated in Amsterdam Osdorp. Her ashes along with those of her second husband strewn sea.
Sonia Gaskell did much for the postwar Dutch dance theater, which is largely through her efforts came. Through its demanding personality was often in conflict with her surroundings. Simultaneously asked her passion her precisely what her goal. About her knowledge, opinions were divided. Some saw her as a genius, others thought that it primarily a 'heavy-handed ruling ballet mistress', but no doubt they had a sparing nothing and no passion for dance as art' (Hofstra).
A: Documentation on Sonia Gaskell in the Netherlands Theatre Institute in Amsterdam.
Liesbeth Sparks
Gaskelyte, Sara, (known as Sonia Gaskell), ballet teacher (Vilkaviskis (Lithuania, Russia) 04.14.1904 - Paris (France) 09/07/1974. Daughter of Solomon Gaskelyte, grain merchant, and Anna Karnovsky. Married about 1922 Abraham Goldenson, mathematician and philosopher. Following divorce (09/05/1936) married on 11/01/1939 by Philipp Heinrich Bauchhenss (1894-1948), interior. Both marriages were childless.
picture Gaskel, Sara
Sara Gaskelyte grew up as the second oldest of five daughters in a wealthy Jewish-Russian family. Her father was a grain merchant, who was far from home and around traveled through Russia and Siberia. Names in the parental home arts and culture plays an important role. She played the mother of Sara piano and took herself from her eighth successfully ballet. In 1914 the family moved Gaskelyte from Lithuania to Kharkov in the Ukraine. Sara visited a high school, where she skipped a class and therefore already graduated from high school at age fifteen. At school she developed a talent for writing, and it was her dream to be a writer.
At an early age, Sara felt attracted to Zionism, especially since the family Gaskelyte constantly suffered from anti-Semitism. The outbreak of the October Revolution in 1917 and the subsequent civil war brought little improvement herein. Kharkov changed several times of occupation, and violence against Jews was the order of the day. Sara wanted to go to Palestine, and already in 1919 left the young girl to the south of Russia in an attempt to travel there overland. They did not, however, beyond the Caucasus, as the route turned out to be blocked. Eventually they arrive in Palestine until 1921. Gaskelyte worked under primitive conditions in the newly founded Kibbutz 'Ein Harod "the lake of Tiberias, where she helped the draining of wetlands. Here met Gaskelyte about 1922 Abraham Goldenson, a few years older than she was. He was a mathematician and philosopher, and his dream was to become a professor at the Sorbonne in Paris. Gaskelyte had great admiration for his intellectual capabilities and married him.
In 1924, the couple from Palestine on a freighter to Marseille thence to travel to Paris. Here Goldenson grabbed his studies again, so Gaskelyte in both their livelihood was provided. Since the French language still insufficiently managed, it seemed better that her dancing to do than writing. Sonia Gaskell - as it probably around that time was called - began to act, while simultaneously took dance lessons to improve her technique. Its two main teachers were Ljubov Egorova, a former prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, and Leo Staats, the leader of the Paris Opera Ballet. Gaskell was also a great admirer of the Russian ballet leader Sergei Diaghilev. Except as a member of various ensembles, she also acted in nightclubs. Together with a friend she had an acrobatic act, under the name "Ariane et Arielle ', which it to the Côte d'Azur and in Italy occurred.
Gaskell's marriage to Goldenson, meanwhile, was getting worse and finally after a few years in divorce. Gaskell threw himself entirely to dance. To be as slim as possible to stay she kept to a strict diet. This, however, weakened her resistance and she walked tuberculosis. Over a year they stayed in a sanatorium just outside Paris. After her recovery Gaskell decided to focus primarily on teaching instead of action, and about 1936 she opened on the Champs Elysées her own ballet studio "Les ballets de Paris'. Soon she was included in the artistic environment of Paris. So visited the French painter and sculptor André Derain arranged her studio and she came into contact with the circle around the poet and writer Jean Cocteau. Besides teaching she made various choreographies and several ballets movie with her former teacher Staats.
In 1937 Gaskell met at the World Exhibition in Paris Amsterdam interior Heini Bauchhenss. Early 1939 Gaskell married with him, which they acquired the Dutch nationality. Even before the outbreak of the Second World War, the couple moved to Amsterdam. There began Gaskell soon again to teach initially in a studio at the Kerkstraat and from 1940 to Zomerdijkstraat. She and her husband moved into a flat above the ballet studio.
Gaskell was a demanding teacher and was known for its discipline and perfectionism. She worked hard and expected the same from her dancers. During the German occupation had Gaskell because of her Jewish background hiding. She remained teaching in a ballet studio, temporarily on behalf of someone else stood. In 1942 she had a Jewish student in the class because of stress and fatigue sat crying on the floor after a fall. Gaskell demanded that they would repeat the exercise: 'Do you want to be a dancer after the war? Remember, that nobody will ask you what you've suffered. It will require that you dance well '(Hague Post, 03/14/1959). The later famous choreographer Rudi van Dantzig said about her teaching: "Madam people could churn out. She also gave me from the ground up "(Utrecht, 163).
In 1945, after the liberation, a small ballet company founded Gaskell on, with twelve dancers: Studio '45. Lack of money was the company after six months to exist. Gaskell then made a number of study tours, including in 1947 to New York, where she was impressed by the modern dance techniques of Martha Graham.
After her husband Bauchhenss in March 1948 was deceased, founded Gaskell is, more than ever, in her work. In January 1949 she was asked in Rotterdam a lecture on the history of the dance show. She decided this lecture, "Three centuries of dance ', to illustrate with some dancing. The performance was a success, and there was an expansion of the repertoire. The concept grew in 1950 into a full ballet group - complete with orchestra - under the name Ballet Recital I. Lack of money led however to the performances in 1951 were to be discontinued. Gaskell then went to Paris, where she temporarily moved in with one of her sisters. In June 1952, she was now again returned to the Netherlands - was accompanied by her revived under the name Ballet Recital II.
In the fifties Gaskell was one of the parties in what is the "ballet war was called. The Dutch dance theater was then dominated by the so-called 'ballet matriarchy "(Utrecht, 162): a few women who each were in charge of a private company. Besides that Gaskell had to Mascha Weeme, leader of the Ballet of the Low Countries, Françoise Adret of the Ballet of the Dutch Opera, and Hans Snoek of the Scapino Ballet. The "ballet war" was caused by the desire of the Dutch government to address this fragmentation to an end by a national ballet company to be established. To Weeme, Adret Gaskell and competed for the prize to the most: in charge of this newly formed company.
Gaskell drew in the "ballet war" ended the longest straw. She received on 1 September 1954 on the recommendation of a committee of international experts, the artistic director of the Dutch Ballet, that The Hague as the seat was assigned. The group consisted of 32 dancers - most from Ballet Recital - and received government grants 120,000 guilders. The groups of order Weeme and Adret continued existence incidentally, in Amsterdam.
Gaskell wanted the Dutch Ballet 'a dance alive museum "setting (Utrecht, 162). Her goal was both romantic classical ballets and contemporary works on stage to bring. They expanded the repertoire it also accelerates out: between October 1954 and June 1961 were only sixteen classical masterpieces rehearsed. Gaskell also gave young Dutch choreographers like Rudi van Dantzig and Jaap Flier the chance to present their own work. She continued teaching itself, but because of the subsidy could also invite leading foreign guest lecturers.
Gaskell's passion was accompanied by rigor and inflexibility, with the result that between 1954 and 1961 several times seriously conflicted with her dancers. Also five business leaders left the ballet company within one year after disagreement. In 1959 the bomb burst really: after a violent conflict with Gaskell decided a significant number of the Dutch Ballet dancers to divest itself and a private company to set up: the Dutch Dance Theatre. Among the departure knew were among others Hans van Manen, Alexandra Radius and Rudi van Dantzig - the latter would otherwise after a season with the Dutch Ballet return.
For Gaskell was the establishment of the Dutch Dance Theatre a blow, not only in the emotional sense - she considered her students and her children - but also in practical terms: over a third of all the dancers left the Dutch Ballet. The soloists vacant places were occupied by inexperienced dancers as Sonja van Beers, Leonie Kramer and Olga de Haas. According to some, this sudden promotion that is responsible for many of these young dancers prematurely opbrandden (Van Schaik, 96).
Meanwhile, in April 1959 the Ballet of the Low Countries and the Ballet of the Dutch Opera merged into the Amsterdams Ballet, led by Mascha in Weeme, but that company was plagued by conflict. In 1961 merged the Amsterdams Ballet and the Dutch Ballet in turn to the Dutch National Ballet, which was established in Amsterdam. Gaskell was artistic director and Ter Weeme got control over the ballets for the opera. This collaboration was soon broken in 1962 went after a high ascending order Weeme conflict sick. In the same year became the business manager HJ Waage off after a fight.
Gaskell act as artistic director of the National Ballet differed essentially not by it with the Dutch Ballet policy: tradition with innovation. The major difference between the two groups was the scale. The National Ballet was significantly greater than the Dutch Ballet, so Gaskell could have more dancers and the repertoire could continue to expand. She brought full-length classical ballets on stage, like Swan Lake (1965), but also produced modern pieces like Shirah (1962) by the American choreographer Pearl Lang. Van Dantzig in 1967 besides Romeo and Juliet performed, the first full-length ballet of a Dutch choreographer.
This scale was not easy for Gaskell. In the early years of her career were the companies been so small, that it is a mother's role was fitting, could deal with the "issues, love problems and ailments of the dancers. But the Dutch National Ballet was "a company, more businesslike and sober" (Boswinkel (1969)). Moreover Gaskell loved to do everything in their own hands. She could not or would not delegate, which in a large group as the National Ballet for many problems caused. The quarrels with Ter Weeme and Waage were only the first in a long series of conflicts.
Even Gaskell's departure at the National Ballet went far from smoothly. The intention was that, during a transitional period of two years, its successors Rudi van Dantzig and Robert Kaesen would act, but in 1968 was a conflict over the production of The Sleeping Beauty so high that Gaskell prematurely left the National Ballet. "Getting out of the ballet has cost me a lot of misery. I had prepared there, but when the time came, I got a slump that lasted for months, "she said later (Boswinkel (1969)). On 9 October 1969, Gaskell greatly honored, but this ceremony had a significantly different character than those at its twentieth anniversary in 1966 as a ballet teacher. Everything was to note that the relationships within the Dutch National Ballet in three years had been thoroughly disrupted. So hurried Gaskell in her acceptance speech a word about her successors.
After her departure Gaskell settled in Paris, where she taught at freelance dance teachers. At the invitation she also worked occasionally in Rome, Israel and Florence. The training of dancers as they considered it "from generation to generation transmission of a message, the realization that you are a carrier of something greater than yourself '(Boswinkel (1972)). In 1969 Gaskell director of the dance department of UNESCO. Commissioned by the NCRV she directed a number of television further documents based on books of the Bible, such as Job (1969) and Song (1970). Gaskell died in July 1974 after an illness in a hospital in Paris. She was cremated in Amsterdam Osdorp. Her ashes along with those of her second husband strewn sea.
Sonia Gaskell did much for the postwar Dutch dance theater, which is largely through her efforts came. Through its demanding personality was often in conflict with her surroundings. Simultaneously asked her passion her precisely what her goal. About her knowledge, opinions were divided. Some saw her as a genius, others thought that it primarily a 'heavy-handed ruling ballet mistress', but no doubt they had a sparing nothing and no passion for dance as art' (Hofstra).
A: Documentation on Sonia Gaskell in the Netherlands Theatre Institute in Amsterdam.
Liesbeth Sparks
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| The Dutch Ambassador and the Director of the Vilkaviskis Museum at the Regional Museum 2 | The Dutch Ambassador and the Director of the Vilkaviskis Museum at the Regional Museum 1 | The visitors in front of what used to the Bravol cigarette factory | In the background what used to be the Jewish Old Age Home |
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| What used to the center of Jewish Vilkaviskis | The Dutch Ambassador the Mayor of Vilkaviskis the The Honorable Mr Algirdas S Bagusinskas and the Director of the Vilkaviskis Museum Mr Antanas Zilinskas |
The Visit of the Dutch Ambassador to Lithuania to Vilkaviskis April 2009
The Visit of the Dutch Ambassador to Lithuania to Vilkaviskis April 2009
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