Brenan, Jennie Frances (1877-1964)

Also known as
Brenan, Jennie (1877-1964)
Field of activity
dance teacher; dancer
NLA Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1462944

Biographies

BRENAN, JENNIE FRANCES (1877-1964), dancing teacher, was born on 24 April 1877 at Carlton, Victoria, fifth daughter of James Joseph Brenan, Irish-born estate agent, and his wife Annie Bryce Cooper, née Livingston, of Edinburgh. She was educated at the Catholic Ladies' College, East Melbourne. Despite family disapproval, Jennie always wanted to dance and J. C. Williamson, a frequent visitor to the Brenan home, encouraged her to take lessons from Mary Weir. Her early training in 'fancy dancing', from the gavotte to the Irish jig, gave her an artistic eclecticism she never lost. In the 1890s she studied ballet in Melbourne under Rosalie Phillipini and in 1901-02 under Alexandre Genée in London.

View the full record at Australian Dictionary of Biography

Born in Carlton, Victoria, Jennie Brenan took dancing classes in Melbourne from Mary Weir and Rosalie Phillipini. She went to London in the first years of the twentieth century to continue her studies with Alexander Genee, uncle of Adeline Genee. Brenan made her stage debut as Mimi in the J. C. Williamson show, Trilby, which opened in Bendigo in 1896, and over the next few years appeared in other Williamson shows including the pantomime The Forty Thieves (1898-1899).

Brenan's own stage career was, however, short-lived as she quickly turned her talents to teaching. She opened her first dance studio in Melbourne in 1904 and she and her two sisters taught ballet, ballroom and fancy dancing over the next several decades. The studio supplied dancers to J. C. Williamson musicals for many years. Brenan's pupils included musical comedy stars Dorothy Brunton and Ivy Schilling, and principal artist with the Borovansky Ballet during the 1940s, Martin Rubinstein. One of Brenan's pupils described her in the 1910s as 'a tall, graceful creature with a cloud of dark hair, lovely eyes, long legs like a race horse and elegant ankles'. Over an extended period Jennie Brenan also arranged dances and ballets for Williamson musicals, pantomimes and operettas.

Brenan was deeply involved with the Association for Operatic Dancing (later the Royal Academy of Dancing/Dance) and organised the teaching of the association's syllabus in Australia. Brenan was the first president of the Royal Academy in Australia and was the first overseas representative to be elected to the organisation's grand council.

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  1. Annie Get Your Gun (1946 - )
    Annie Get Your Gun (1946 - )
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    The Australian production of Annie Get your Gun, an enterprise of the J. C. Williamson organisation, opened in Melbourne on 19 July 1947. Its first season in Australia just over twelve mon...

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    • ...) Brandsen, Ted (1959 - ) Brenan, Jennie (1877 - 1964) Brett, Steven (1965 - ) Brinson, Peter (1920 - 1995...
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  1. Scholarship Worth £500 For Ballerina
    The Sunday Herald (Sydney, NSW : 1949 - 1953) Sunday 24 June 1951 p 19 Article Illustrated
    ... Jennie and Eileen Brenan (Melbourne), Edouard Boro vansky, and Mr. Harald Bowden. Each candidate ... name of the late Frances Scully, awaits the winner of the 1951 ballet competition, the finals of which will be held by the Frances Scully School of Dancing at the Empire Theatre next Tuesday. This is the ... 224 words
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  2. GALA NIGHT FOR FUNDS
    The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Thursday 8 May 1941 p 8 Article
    ... danced by pupils of Jennie Brenan, with Mary Brown and the opera company; and the finale, "The Empire ... "Arise. O France," with words by Helen Dames and music by Edith Harrhy. Miss Frances Dillon was the ... 226 words
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  3. THE ANGLO-INDIAN MAIL CONTRACT. (BY CABLE FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, MAY 19.
    The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) Saturday 21 May 1887 p 9 Article
    ... Minnie Wise- man, Frances Hansen, Annio Marsden Colles, Ada Thomson, Edi Dethridge. Jennie Mason, Mary Brenan, Beatrice Levy. Mis. Hannah Levy made the presentation, ta which Mr. Gillott briefly und ... 212 words
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