Bari Rolfe (July 20, 1916October 19, 2002) was an American dancer, choreographer,

mime artist A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a theatrical medium ...

, and educator. Rolfe studied mime in Paris, and beginning in the 1960s taught it at

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

, and

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

in Seattle. She wrote several books on mime.

Early life and education

Bari Rolfe was born on July 20, 1916 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Illinois. The child of a chiropractor and dress designer, as a child Rolfe studied ballet and performed in nightclubs and vaudeville acts, as well as the Chicago World's Fair. Her family moved to Los Angeles during World War II, and Rolfe continued dancing although her career was temporarily halted when she fell and was injured while performing at the Club Lido.

Career as a mime and educator

In the 1950s Rolfe was living in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, where she saw a mime performance by

Marcel Marceau Marcel Marceau (; born Marcel Mangel; 22 March 1923 – 22 September 2007) was a French actor and mime artist most famous for his stage persona, "Bip the Clown". He referred to mime as the "art of silence", and he performed professionally worldw ...

. This inspired her to travel to Paris and study at Etienne Decroux's school and

L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq is a school of physical theatre located on Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. Founded in 1956 by Jacques Lecoq, the school offers a professional and intensive two-ye ...

. Rolfe returned to the United States, and was teaching classes on mime in 1967 at the

San Fernando Valley State College California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

and

. In the early 1970s Rolfe's articles on mime were appearing in the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

and

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

. In 1973 Rolfe served as program coordinator for the first international mime institute to be held in the United States. She authored books on mime and other topics related to theater, and was called the "Grandmother of the American mime world" at the time of her death in 2002.

Political Life and Activism

Rolfe was one of the founders of OWL, the Older Women's League and joined other progressive groups.

Personal life and death

Rolfe lived in the Prudence Crandall House in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

from 1977 until her death in 2002. She died of kidney complications.

Bibliography

* ''Behind the Mask'', 1977 * ''Movement for Period Plays'', 1985 * ''History and Mystery of Mime'', 1990 * ''Actions Speak Louder'', 1992 * ''Mimes on Miming: An Anthology of Writings on the Art of Mime'', 1980 (editor)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rolfe, Bari 1916 births 2002 deaths American mimes People from Chicago