Polk, Elizabeth

Elizabeth Polk, née Sofer, (1902-2001) is considered one of the pioneers of dance therapy. She was born in Vienna, Austria in 1902. From the 1910s through the 1930s, she studied ballet, modern dance, gymnastics, piano, and music education. Polk eventually became a concert dancer in Vienna and also toured in Czechoslovakia and throughout Austria. She obtained her teaching license in 1933 and began teaching dance classes in Vienna. In 1938, on the verge of World War II, Polk and her husband left Austria for the United States.

Polk resumed teaching in 1948, after settling in the United States and giving birth to her daughter, Grace. She established her own studio in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Queens, New York, where she taught classes for children as well as adults. Over the next two decades, Polk also taught: at summer camps, including Camp T-Ledge in Maine and the Daycroft School in Connecticut; adult and family classes in creative dance in Levittown, Long Island; and workshops for dance counselors at the Young Men-Young Women's Hebrew Association (Y.M.-Y.W.H.A.) in New York City. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Polk began working with children with physical, mental, and behavioral disabilities. In 1957, she became a regional dance instructor at the Lexington School for the Deaf, and in 1962 she became a dance and movement therapist for the Childville School, a residential treatment center for emotionally disturbed children. In 1958, Polk co-founded the National Dance Teacher's Guild.

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