Ruth St. Denis is considered by many to be one of the seminal figures in both American modern dance and American sacred dance. From the beginning of her career in the early 1900's Ruth St. Denis was ahead of her time in exploring dance forms from diverse world cultural and spiritual traditions. Denishawn, the dance company she founded with her husband and partner Ted Shawn, popularized dance as a performing art and trained a whole generation of American dancers, including Martha Graham, Charles Weidman, and Doris Humphreys. At Adelphi University, Ruth St. Denis helped found the nations first college dance program. In her later years, she returned to her roots, exploring dance as a form of religious and spiritual expression.
Accessed - 20/01/2012
Ruth St. Denis - Her Life & Legacy
Ruth Dennis was born in 1879 on a New Jersey farm. The daughter of a strong-willed and highly educated women ( Ruth Emma Dennis was a physician by training), St. Denis was encouraged to study dance from an early age. Her early training included Delsarte technique, ballet lessons with the Italian ballerina Maria Bonfante, social dance forms and skirt dancing. Ruth began her professional career in New York City in 1892, where she worked as a skirt dancer in a dime museum and in vaudeville houses. Dime museums featured "leg dancers" (female dancers whose legs were visible under their short skirts) in brief dance routines. St. Denis was probably required to perform her routine as many as eleven times a day.
Accessed - 20/01/2012
Chapter 2: The Solo Dancers - Ruth St. Denis
Ruth St. Denis was a very oriental and seductive dancer. She was friends of Isadora Duncan and Loie Fuller who all rebelled against the rules of dance at the time. She was interested in Egyptian, Greek and Indian art.
ReplyDeleteShe was born in 1879 in New Jersey.