biography
| name: |
St Denis, Ruth
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originally Ruth Dennis
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| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1877–1968)
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| biography:
| Dancer and choreographer, born in Somerville, New Jersey, USA. Dancing from age six, she began in vaudeville and musicals at age 16 and then became an actress who worked with stage director David Belasco (1898–1905). Convinced that dance was the way for her to express her ‘noblest thoughts’, she studied the cultures and dances of the East (although it is also claimed that she took her inspiration from a poster for Isis cigarettes) and then choreographed her own first dance, Radha (1906), based on Hindu mythology and using actual East Indian dancers. An overnight success with her mixture of exotic spectacle and high seriousness, she toured Europe for three years. After returning to the US, she produced elaborate dance productions based on Egyptian and Japanese elements. In 1914 she met and married dancer Ted Shawn and they went to Los Angeles and founded the Denishawn School of Dancing (moved to New York City in 1921) and the Denishawn Dancers. They toured widely, continued to choreograph independently, and trained many of the leading figures in modern American dance. By 1932 they were separated (although they never divorced). By this time she was increasingly embracing the religious element of dance and founded the Society of Spiritual Arts (1931) and later the Church of the Divine Dance (1947), convinced that dance was a form of worship. In 1939 she published her autobiography, An Unfinished Life. From 1945 on she appeared with Ted Shawn at his Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and at special events. She continued choreographing and performing dances based on Asian and Egyptian mythology until the mid-1960s, often performing in churches to express her idea of the spiritual nature of her work. |
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