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.

Polk was a staff member at Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y. from 1959 to 1984, working for the university's Children's Center for Creative Arts and periodically as an assistant professor in the dance and physical education departments. From 1965 to 1991, she was also a dance and movement therapist at the Life Line Center for Child Development in Jamaica, Queens. Polk was one of the founding members of the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) in 1966, a professional organization which creates and maintains standards for practicing dance therapists and dance therapy education. In the early 1970s, Polk taught at the Gateway School for children with learning disabilities in Manhattan. From the 1960s through the 1980s, Polk gave demonstrations and taught workshops and courses at numerous universities, community centers, and professional association meetings. She also published many articles, including the seminal 1974 article "Dance Therapy with Special Children," and produced three musical records to be used in children's dance classes. In 1995, she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the ADTA in recognition of her contributions to the field of dance therapy.

Polk died in October 2001 in New York, N.Y. at age 99.

From the guide to the Elizabeth Polk papers, 1933-1996, (The New York Public Library. Jerome Robbins Dance Division.)