Beulah Gundling

Beulah Gundling in Vivo (1977 )

Beulah Gundling, even Beulah Detwiler Gundling, ( born February 13, 1916 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA, † October 1, 2003 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States) was an American synchronized swimmer, Aquatic artist and choreographer. She was instrumental in the development of synchronized swimming at an internationally recognized sport and dance form.

Youth and sports career

In her childhood, Beulah Gundling was particularly interested in music and ballet. At the age of 14, she began at the suggestion of her parents to take swimming lessons. However, they first made negative experiences with this sport because she could not stay afloat. After the study of books on swimming techniques she finally learned to swim self-taught and improved their level increasing. In her youth she participated in competitions and won a gold medal in the backstroke at a meeting organized by the AAU in Iowa competition.

In 1938 she finished her education at Coe College and then worked as Sektretärin at the Chamber of Commerce Cedar Rapids. At that time she felt the naked swimming increasingly boring and developed her idea to combine swimming with music and dance. After reading a book on Rhythmic swimming, she created a program with movements of different swimming styles to music. At the suggestion of her husband, trainer and manager Henry Gundling Beulah 1948, with Noreen Fenner on the duet competition in synchronized swimming at the outdoor Nationals in Des Moines and arrived in tenth place.

In the following years, she devoted herself more her appearances as a soloist, choreographed the freestyles and designed the costumes themselves, you won several major competitions in North America, including in 1949 she was awarded the gold medal at the Canadian Synchronized Swimming Championships with their freestyle The Swan to music from the Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint- Saëns and occupied by 1950-54 always the first place in the Outdoor vacuum solo competitions throughout the U.S. National AAU Synchronized Swimming Championships. Gundling put the synchronized swimming as an individual discipline within the framework of an actor swimming at the Pan American Games in 1951 and at the Olympic Summer Games 1952 in front, where they presented their program Thunderbird to music from the opera Natoma by Victor Herbert. After winning the individual gold medal at the Pan American Games 1955 Beulah Gundling ended her athletic career.

1955-2000: Aquatic Artist, choreographer and author

After the end of their sporting careers Gundling stepped 1955-1991 at numerous festivals co-founded by her husband Henry International Academy of Aquatic Art on. She also wrote nine books about swimming and held lectures internationally.

1965 Beulah Gundling was recorded as the first synchronized swimmer in the International Swimming Hall of Fame. In 2000, she was the last time Aquatic Artist in the documentation The Mermaid 's Club: see A History of Synchronized Swimming by Paul Carvalho.

Choreography (selection)

The following is a partial list of Beulah Gundling own choreographies presented to her self solo programs:

Beulah Gundling: Concerto ( 1977)

Beulah Gundling and her husband Henry Gundling (left) in 1980

Bibliography ( complete)

• B. Gundling, Peg Sellers: Aquatic Art - A text book for swimmers and instructors in Aquatic Art, edited by Pioneer Litho, Cedar Rapids, 1957.
• B. Gundling: Exploring Aquatic kind, self-published, 1963.
• B. Gundling: The Aquatic kind book of figures, self-published, 1963.
• B. Gundling: The Aquatic kind book of water shows, self-published, 1964.
• B. Gundling: Fun with Aquatic figure variations, self-published, 1971
• B. Gundling: Aquatic Enchaînements and Petite Compositions, self-published, 1972.
• B. Gundling: Dancing in the Water ( Autobiography ), self-published, 1976.
• B. Gundling, Jill White: Creative Synchronized Swimming, Leisure Press, Champaign ( Illinois) in 1988.
• B. Gundling: To Henry with Love, self-published, 1988.