"We hear the silent voice of the spiritual universe within our own hearts."
-Ruth St. Denis
from Brainyquote.com
 Image courtesy of whidbeydup.com
| Modern dance has accumulated numerous different styles and meanings over the years. While some pioneers of modern dance brought comedy or the natural world to their style, Ruth St. Denis had her own imagination. She incorporated culture and vaudeville customs into her own style of modern dance Ruth St. Denis was born in the late 1870’s in New
Jersey. As a little girl, Ruth showed
strong interest in entertaining, including acting, ballet, and a variety of
social dance forms. However, her
dancing career began as a “skirt dancer."
She began touring worldwide as a backup dancer for Broadway producer
David Belasco’s company. As the
company traveled to countries like France, Japan, and India, she became
inspired by foreign dancers and actresses. Ruth created her own modern dance solo based on this Eastern
culture. “Radha” was about a maid
who falls in love with a god. It
was her view of bringing Indian culture and myths to a vaudeville stage. She began touring as a soloist in
England and the United States, creating a name for herself and her modern
style. Eventually she added more
acts to her show, hiring dancer Ted Shawn. The two of them fell in love and founded the Denishawn Dance School and Company,
where future modern pioneers, Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey studied. After retiring from performing, she
founded the Society of Spiritual Arts,
incorporating dance into religion as a way to worship. |
Ruth’s biography and dance history is important because it is reflected in her style of modern dance. Because Ruth began dancing and acting on vaudeville stages, her dance style had a strong emphasize on acting and telling a story through theatrical movement. She incorporated elaborate costumes, music, and props to tell the story. Her movement was specially chosen to represent the different instruments used in the music. From traveling country to country, her taste of these different cultures inspired her dance pieces, which eventually lead into the religious aspect. For Ruth St. Denis, her modern style was not famous because of the style and quality of specific movement. Instead, it was her vision and creative work in each dance piece that made it a success.
Image courtesy of experimentsinelegance.blogspot.com
By Jessica Baetz
