Strange true story of how Victorian sport of Calisthenics was born
When women were expelled from gyms almost 150 years ago amid claims it was unladylike or might harm fertility, a bizarre new sport was born.
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It’s a homegrown sport that owes its origins to the Gold Rush, a peculiar philosophy called “muscular Christianity”, and the exclusion of women from gyms lest they appear unladylike or become infertile.
Calisthenics, which combines elements of gymnastics, ballet and marching, was born in Victoria in the late 1800s and spread throughout Australia.
And the leading lady of Calisthenics last century was Melbourne’s Vera Hopton, a formidable teacher who revolutionised the sport and demanded perfection from students.
Hopton and the strange history of Calisthenics are explored in the latest episode of the free In Black and White podcast, available from 7am today.
Her story has been researched by Carolyn Fraser, lead curator of the State Library Victoria, which holds Hopton’s archive including hundreds of photos.
Ms Fraser says the “uniquely Victorian sport” resulted from the intersection of first-wave feminism, Gold Rush immigration and muscular Christianity, which was based on the idea that God appreciated people looking after their bodies.
She says a wave of European immigrants came to Victoria during the Gold Rush and opened gyms to cater to the enormous worldwide craze of “physical culture”.
Women were initially welcomed into those physical culture gyms, which held equipment such as fixed rings, parallel bars, pommel horses, hoops, rods and Indian clubs, and both sexes performed the same activities.
But Ms Fraser says there was a backlash in the 1870s and 1880s, and women were expelled from gyms amid concerns that type of exercise was “unwomanly” and could harm fertility.
“What you see them do is start groups of their own to continue the practice, but the apparatus they use is the handheld apparatus, because they no longer have dedicated gyms,” Ms Fraser says.
“So they took with them the Indian clubs, the rods and hoops that had been used in the gyms.
“And what was left behind that the men continued using were things like the pommel horse and the fixed rings and those things that you still see today in men’s gymnastics.”
While Hopton, who was born in 1900 at the zenith of the physical culture craze, did not create Calisthenics, she revolutionised it.
Hopton left her job as a primary school teacher to run Bosworth Physical Culture College, and started her own school, Clifton Calisthenic College, which dominated competitions from the 1930s.
Under Hopton, Calisthenics became less militaristic and rigid, and more artistic and free-flowing, taking inspiration from acclaimed Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova’s 1926 Melbourne performance, and the emerging French eurhythmic dance style.
Find out more by listening to today’s new free episode of the In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here or Spotify here or on your favourite platform.
And listen to our previous podcasts with Carolyn Fraser from the State Library including “Australia’s Willy Wonka” and why the Freddo Frog almost didn’t exist and the story of Janet Lady Clarke’s links to the Ashes urn and the Ned Kelly gang armour.
Check out In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday to see more stories from our fascinating past.
inblackandwhite@heraldsun.com.au