Olive Smithells

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Olive Smithells
Born
Olive Frances Whitta

(1920-10-24)24 October 1920
Christchurch, New Zealand
Died7 June 2007(2007-06-07) (aged 86)
Dunedin, New Zealand
Occupation(s)Dancer, physical education instructor, health educator
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1944; died 1977)​
RelativesArthur Smithells (father-in-law)

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

Early life[edit]

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[edit]

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.[5] 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][14]

Personal life[edit]

Olive Whitta married English-born physical education professor Philip Ashton Smithells[15] in 1944, five days after his first marriage ended in divorce.[16] They had three sons. Both Smithellses were practising Quakers and active in the cause of pacifism.[17] 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.[18] Olive Smithells was widowed when Philip died in 1977, and she died in Dunedin on 7 June 2007, aged 86 years.[1][5]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Cemeteries search". Dunedin City Council. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  2. ^ "Obituary". The Advertiser. 16 July 1926. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
  3. ^ "Guide Notes". Press. 21 April 1934. p. 7. Retrieved 13 April 2020 – via Papers Past.
  4. ^ "Girl Guides' Fete a Pleasant Gathering". Press. 2 December 1935. p. 9. Retrieved 13 April 2020 – via Papers Past.
  5. ^ a b c Stothart, Bob (2007). "Obituary: Olive Smithells, 1920–2007". Journal of Physical Education New Zealand. 40: 8 – via ProQuest.
  6. ^ Smithells, Olive (1967). Fatness, Figures, and Fitness. New Zealand: Thorsons. ISBN 0722501358.
  7. ^ Smithells, Olive; Noordhof, Els (1970). Look after your back, streamline your front. Dunedin, N.Z. : John McIndoe.
  8. ^ Smithells, Philip A.; Smithells, Olive (1974). Individual needs in physical education. Physical education monographs. Auckland: Heinemann Educational Books.
  9. ^ "New Dance Group; Experimental Themes Presented". Evening Post. 3 November 1945. p. 12. Retrieved 13 April 2020 – via Papers Past.
  10. ^ Cheesman, Sue. "Dance of the Instant: the New Dance Group – High calibre documentary about innovative and controversial 1940s dance group". Theatreview. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
  11. ^ Schultz, Marianne (19 September 2017). "Tracing the Steps of Modern and Contemporary Dance in Twentieth-Century New Zealand". In Buck, Ralph; Rowe, Nicholas (eds.). Moving Oceans: Celebrating Dance in the South Pacific. Routledge. pp. 76–79. ISBN 978-1-317-34169-7.
  12. ^ Card, Amanda. "Dancing Modernists in Oceania", in Allana Lindgren and Stephen Ross, eds., The Modernist World (Routledge 2015). ISBN 9781317696155
  13. ^ NZIFF: Dance of the Instant: The New Dance Group 1945–1947, retrieved 13 April 2020
  14. ^ "Arty facts: Spotlight on dance". Otago Daily Times Online News. 20 August 2009. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
  15. ^ "New Zealander Will Speak Here on Physical Education". Iowa City Press-Citizen. 5 January 1956. p. 3. Retrieved 13 April 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ Macdonald, Charlotte (2013). Strong, Beautiful and Modern: National Fitness in Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, 1935–1960. UBC Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-0-7748-2528-3.
  17. ^ McEldowney, Dennis (2000). "Smithells, Philip Ashton". Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
  18. ^ "Gymnasiums". University of Otago. Retrieved 13 April 2020.

External links[edit]

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