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Abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced people worldwide to stay home for long periods. Dance schools and sports clubs have organized online courses. Homes have thus become a stage for body movements. Although online gym classes seem like a new phenomenon, they had a predecessor in the radio gym classes of the 1930s. Belgian dancer Lea Daan (1906–1995), schooled in modern dance by German choreographer Rudolf von Laban, gave gym classes in Dutch for the newly founded National Radio Institute and succeeded in creating a sense of community without any visual means. This paper investigates how Daan organized these live classes and how they fitted within the broader framework of home culture during the economic crisis. We also reflect on the relation between the private and public spheres, a relation reinforced by the modern home through specific architectural elements intended to reform all household members.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ARCHIVES
Archive Lea Daan, The Letterenhuis, Antwerp.
The Flemish Broadcasting Museum, Belgium.
VRT Archive, Brussels.
Digital sources
INR/NIR annual reports, 1931–1939, accessible online at www.vrt.be
The Dutch Royal Library: https://www.kb.nl/
The Flemish Broadcasting Museum, Belgium: https://omroepmuseum.be
The Netherlands Institute of Sound and Vision: https://www.beeldengeluid.nl/
Online archives for newspapers: https://vlaamse-erfgoedbibliotheken.be/kranten/online
Online archive for newspapers https://www.delpher.nl/
Notes
1 This article is an elaborated version of our book chapter forthcoming in Interiors in the Era of Covid: Interior Design between the Public and Private Realms, edited by P. Sparke. P., Ioannidou E., Kirkham P., Knott S. and J. Scholze. INR/NIR (1934: 25–26). Annual reports. Available from: https://www.vrt.be/nl/aanbod/historiek/tijdlijn/jaarverslagen/ (accessed February 24, 2021).
2 Ibid.
3 INR/NIR (1936). Annual reports.
4 Ibid.
5 INR/NIR (1938: 206). Annual reports.
6 Radio was a man’s business, or so claimed the Catholic magazine Radio (Radio), which published conservative articles on the role of women in radio. Its column such as ‘Huisvrouw en radio’ (Housewife and radio) explained in 1933 that only the hours reserved for women and children were useful for them. Women should not listen to the radio too much because it would be a burden instead of a relaxation. Likewise, Radio science (Radio Science) mentioned in 1927 the concept of “radiotrac” (radio fright) that women therefore should not take on the role of radio presenter because they would ‘shut down’ when they had to talk on the radio. Other magazines published pieces that were less directly women-unfriendly, but the undertone that radio was not for women remained. See Mestdag and Mercelis (Citation2016: 13–14).
7 Inspired by the Swedish model, ‘housewives gymnastics’ for all social strata were provided in the Netherlands in the 1950s. They could follow one hour of specialized training weekly to support them in running the household physically. The training, especially ball gymnastics, proved to be effective and successful. For the full movie see, The Netherlands Institute of Sound and Vision, “Gymnastiek voor huisvrouwen (1957)” (Gymnastics for housewives), The Netherlands Institute of Sound and Vision, June 2007, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v = qgrNyu3PB14 (accessed February 01, 2021).
8 Francesca d’Aler was trained by Iril Gadscov, who in turn was educated at the Duncan-Dalcroze Institute of Dames van der Pas in The Hague, the Netherlands. https://theaterencyclopedie.nl/wiki/Iril_Gadescov (accessed February 01, 2021).
9 “The icosahedron has a cube at its core, which unfolds to infinity. That is precisely the space. I always say: no exact statement if you don’t know space. An exact statement means that your feeling must have its right place in the room. There is no other way. That is why knowledge of space is so important in life, the inner life.” (own translation). See Van Kerkhoven (Citation1984).
10 Daan discussed, among others, the difference between sports, on the one hand, and body exercises set to music, on the other. In her opinion, sports only met the needs of the muscles as the narrow system of most sports reduces the range of body motions. She preferred movements to music as a means of self-expression. This, she believed, satisfied the young human soul, as she had noticed the youth’s interest in folk dance. See Daan (Citation1934-1935).
11 Reactions were received via readers’ letters, within the framework of the radio’s democratic policy, asking about the most suitable broadcasting hours for the gym classes. INR/NIR annual reports, 1935, p. 71. https://www.vrt.be/nl/aanbod/historiek/tijdlijn/jaarverslagen/ (accessed February 24, 2021). According to the radio programming published by the Flemish newspaper Het Belang van Limburg on 3 November 1935 the first classes were initially broadcast only at 7 a.m. after the weather forecast. As of 8 December in the same year, two sessions were programmed, at 6h40 and at 7h40 (contribution by Rik Nulens, 10 May 2021).
12 Account by Bert Van Kerckhoven, see: Avermaete (Citation1979: 64).
13 See [Anon] (Citation1932).
14 This was not an isolated case. Alfred Braun, who was a German broadcasting pioneer, a trained stage actor and self-proclaimed radio gym teacher during summer, instructed his listeners while sitting in a comfortable club chair and with a cup of coffee. See: https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/reihe-rundfunkpioniere-alfred-braun-der-erfinder-der-100.html (accessed March 25, 2022).
15 Contribution by Dirk Laporte, interview on 10 February 2021. See also Hennaut (Citation1996).
16 Around the turn of the century, local (red) marble was widely used in domestic interiors (contribution by Dirk Laporte, interview on 10 February 2021).
17 Jos Vandenbreeden quoted Huib Hoste: “De ramen zijn de ogen en de longen van het huis” [The windows are the eyes and the lungs of the house]. An Interview with Jos Vandenbreeden in the television program ‘De Modernisten 1’, provided by the Flemish Radio and Television broadcast, https://www.vrt.be/vrtnu/a-z/de-modernisten/1/de-modernisten-s1a1-huib-hoste/ (accessed March 20, 2021).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Selin Geerinckx
SELIN GEERINCKX (B. 1980), MSc interior architect and researcher, is affiliated with the Interior Architecture programme at the University of Antwerp. She builds on the genealogy of the interior architecture discipline through a focus on modern dance theory and methodologies. Her research centers on the bodily and mental effects of modernist housing. She recently studied the work of Lea Daan who brought daily radio gym classes into the homes between 1935 and 1940 in the frame of public health. Selin co-curated the exhibition Living in Color in Antwerp (2019) and was co-tutor in the International Student Workshop DOCOMOMO 2020+1 (oDOMOs) in Tokyo.[email protected]; [email protected]
Els De Vos
Els De Vos (b. 1976), Engineering-Architect and Spatial Planner, is Associate Professor at the University of Antwerp, where she chairs the interior architecture programme. Her research is situated in the field of the history and theory of (interior) architecture, home culture, gender and public space in the second half of the 20th century. She obtained a PhD on the architectural, social and gender-differentiated mediation of dwelling in 1960s–1970s Flanders. She has co-edited several volumes, including Reuse of Modernist Buildings: A Case Study Handbook (2019). Currently, as a workgroup leader of the COST-action European Middle Class Mass Housing (https://mcmh.eu/). [email protected]