Today I said my final earthly farewell to my North Star – my mentor of nearly 40 years and a giant presence of love and learning in my life.
“Miss Eva” danced into my life nearly 40 years ago as my ballet teacher, and I as one of her first students. But that was just the beginning of our story, her story started long before that.
Eva Kohout survived three lifetimes of challenge: a world war; the bombing of her primary school (sometimes it pays to be the rebel that truants!); defecting from Czechoslovakia at the peak of her career as the Prima Ballerina of the State Ballet; leaving one of her children behind in order to save the other two; resettlement as a refugee in Geelong and working as a dishwasher to support her young family.
The second half of Eva’s life began in Brisbane as a ballet teacher of humble means. Over the next 4 decades she built a dance school of cult like status – no glitz or glamour, just old crumbly church halls filled with sweat and smiling faces.
Miss Eva was known for her tough love approach. No one pushed you harder to find your new “best” than her, but she did it by inspiring you to dare to aim higher, to want more, to be audacious in following your dreams. And her students routinely did just that – dancing for some of the most famous ballet companies in the world.
But the key to her success (aside from her heart… and this woman was ALL heart) – Miss Eva never compared you to anyone else. My only measurement of success was whether I had improved on yesterday. I was never required to be anyone but “Emily darling” (damn I am going to miss the sound of my name in her Czech accent).
So from Miss Eva, through me – I wanted to say: In a world that tries to tell us our worth is measured by comparison to others – run your own race. Your success is showing up every day and doing your damn best. Celebrate it.
May all of our inner “darlings” shine bright today.
