She hasn’t stopped dancing yet

It’s not often you hear the voice of a 104-year-old on the radio. You’re even less likely to hear one so clear in thought, so spirited and full of enthusiasm for life. Eileen Kramer’s voice crackles with age, with the years she has lived, but from what she says, and the energetic way she says it, she could be at least 30 years younger. ‘I don’t know how long I will go on living,’ she says, but she’s still excited by the present: ‘There’s so much going on. I’m living in that period when a lot is being discovered about everything.’

Kramer is a dancer, artist, performer, famed in Australia for her expressive, idiomatic style of movement, and she’s still choreographing new works, although difficulties with balance have meant she has only just given up joining the dancers on stage. In Art of Now: Breath of Life on Radio 4 (produced by Eleanor McDowall) Kramer recalls how, aged 22, she went to see a performance by the Bodenwieser dance group and experienced a moment of recognition.