Chicago dance teacher and author.
Edna Lucile Baum was born in Georgetown, Illinois in 1894. She was raised on the South Side of Chicago, and became a renowned children's dance teacher. She started her dance studies with Mabel R. Wentworth in 1911, and later performed with Adolph Bolm, eventually becoming his assistant. She originally taught children's dance classes for the Chicago Park District and in the early 1930s she opened her own studio. In the late 1930s, for her more advanced students, Baum founded the Pink Slipper Club, originally called the Little Ballet Group, for which she created original ballets. She also taught dance teachers at conventions where she would sell her dance notes and descriptions. This led to opening the Ballet Book Shop in downtown Chicago, the first of its kind, after she retired from teaching. She also sold her original ballet notes through her book and catalog business, and maintained a close relationship with British bookseller Cyril W. Beaumont. Besides being a dance teacher and businesswoman, Baum was also a writer. She published the Dictionary of dance terms (1932), the Book of bar work (1934), and her Ballet notebook (1950). She wrote and collected short poems and stories and was planning to write a dancer's cookbook, for which she had started collecting recipes.
From the description of Edna Lucile Baum papers, 1890-1981. (Newberry Library). WorldCat record id: 317715133
