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Article: Lola Botka (1910-2006).(DEATHS)(cofounder of the National Ballet of Chile)(Obituary)
- Article from:
- Dance Magazine
- Article date:
- February 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Dance Magazine, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A dancer of the Jooss Ballet and cofounder of the National Ballet of Chile, Lola Botka died in November. At the age of 20, the Hungary-born dancer was spotted at a festival by Kurt Jooss. Within a few months--at Rudolf Laban's insistence--she went to Essen to be a part of Jooss' company, where she met her husband, Ernst Uthoff. She was also the ballet mistress of the Opera of Duisburg in the late 1930s.
During a Jooss Ballet tour in 1941, Botka and Uthoff were performing in Chile when World War II broke out in Hungary and they could not return home. What began with classes in a small hall in Santiago turned into the National Ballet of Chile by 1945. Botka ...