Eliza Summerhays

Caroline Prohosky & Graham Brown

Dance 461
14 April 2015
Ruth St. Denis
There have been many pioneers of dance throughout the years,
especially in modern dance. Each pioneer of modern dance began training
under another pioneer and contributed to the culmination of what dance is
today. In fact, Daniel Charon, the artistic director of Ririe Woodbury Dance
Company, referred to dance as a family tree, and the lineage always ends up
connecting somehow (Charon). There was so much to discover about the
movement of the human that one dancer couldnt come up with all of it by
themselvesthe various qualities of movement alone are practically endless.
Each dance pioneer brought new aesthetics to the viewers, some well
received but others not so much. One modern dance pioneer who
contributed to the bringing forth of a special new technique and style of
dance was Ruth St. Denis. Ruth grew up in New York where her early dance
training was influenced by Franois Delsarte and mile Jaques-Dalcroze.
Ruths mother, Emma, was exposed to dance by her doctor, who prescribed
it to her as a tool to emotionally cope with her troubled past. Emma
encouraged Ruth to dance, too, because Dr. Jackson said dance promoted
the development and culture of the moral and spiritual nature by providing
a counterbalancing emotional and physical outlet for persons of highly

Summerhays 2
sensitive spiritual organization (Shelton 5). This statement became the
rationale behind Ruths entire career.
With her logic for dancing set, Ruth did not consider herself a modern
dancer. She was an interpretive dancer. She also agreed with Ralph Waldo
Emerson that an artist must penetrate to the spiritual truth beyond physical
appearances (Shelton xv). Later in her young life, she became dissatisfied
with the work she was doing, as well as in other aspects of her life. She
wasnt sure if she really wanted to dance anymore and she became lazy.
Ruth herself said, Undoubtedly I was preparing myself, unknown to me, for
the rapidly approaching moment when all my perplexities would be clarified,
all my energies brought into a dazzling focus. That moment came so
suddenly that I still marvel at it (Denis 51). Ruth continued to relay the
moment that changed her life and awakened her passion for dance: We
were laughing as usual over some joke, and sipping our sodas, when my
eyes lifted about the fountain and I saw a cigarette poster of Egyptian
Deities. I stopped with my soda half consumed and stared and stared
(Denis 52). The fact that an artist such as Ruth had been so deeply inspired
by a superficial, commercial drawing for a cigarette company doesnt quite
make sense, until reading the following words from her autobiography:
In this figure before me was the symbol of the entire nation,
culture, and destiny of Egypt. The main concern in the picture
was the figure, its repose, its suggestion of latent power and
beauty, constituting to my sharply awakened sensitivity a

Summerhays 3
strange symbol of the complete inner being of man It was,
however, not merely a symbol of Egypt, but a universal symbol
of all elements of history and art, which may be expressed
through the human bodyand I knew that my destiny as a
dancer had sprung alive in that moment. I would become a
rhythmic and impersonal instrument of spiritual revelation rather
than a personal actress of comedy or tragedythe world of
antiquity and the Orient with all its rich poetry of the human soul
opened up and possessed me. (Denis 52)
In just three days of her spark of inspiration, Ruth St. Denis had her
entire first piece and all the production details mapped out. The piece would
be called Egypta. She had no funds to bring the piece to life, so as she
patiently waited, she became more interested in the Indian and Japanese
cultures. As her excitement to create increased, she spent most of her days
in the libraries and museums and asking people of the Hindu religion
questions about anything and everything. It was inspiring to read that Ruth
chased down her dreams, despite her lack of means to bring them to full
actuality. Doing the research about her pieces caused her to find a focus of
action in exactly the same way that another earnest young person would
enter the church. I longed to translate into rhythmic patterns a spiritual
significance (Denis 57). Denis knew that had never been done before in the
dance world, but she did not shy away from the responsibility. She had

Summerhays 4
officially begun her search for the connection of emotion, spirit, and body in
dance.
Ruth St. Denis pieces of art were all created with extreme reverence
and respect for the religions and cultures they represented. There were,
however, boundaries that she pushed in order to fully express the spiritual
and physical connection as well as stay true to the style of her choreography.
She, like her contemporary Isadora Duncan, was able to extend the bounds
of propriety in the public display of the partially clothed female body. At a
time when bare feet were cause for shock, St. Denis in her revealing costume
earned reviews declaring, Every lascivious thought flees shy into the
farthest corner[She has] freed our souls from the clutches of everyday
life (Desmond 37). This reaction to an unpopular belief or trend was
inspiring to many dancers who wanted to make a difference through their
expressions of art, as Ruth did. Another reviewer wrote, Her beauty of line,
her instinctive sense of style, her incomparable hands which seem like
thinking organisms in themselves, are only externals to the glowing idealism
and inner spirit which mark her as an outstanding figure of art today
(Somerville 131). Dance before Ruth was definitely not the same as dance
after Ruth. According to Kristine Somerville, She brought a new quality of
feeling to the medium. The common denominator of all of the reviews and
critiques on St. Denis works is that Ruth found a new way, through dance, to
connect peoples senses with their emotions and spirits, and they understood

Summerhays 5
and appreciated it. That is a very important aspect of performing that a lot of
people these days miss out on.
Luckily, Ruths extent of enlightenment and inspiration didnt end
there. She planned her first visit to the Orient after two decades of being
internationally renowned. Denishawn (the company she and her husband Ted
Shawn started together) was the first American dance group to tour in the
Orient (Schlundt 54). Aside from just going with the company, Ruth wanted
to explore whether the reality of Oriental cultures matched up wit her
dreamy interpretations of them. She also was curious about the artists she
would meet there. An 88-year old geisha danced a 20-minute solo for Ruth,
which she finished by kneeling with her back to the audience and bending
over backward until her head touched the floor between her feet (Scolieri
90). Ruth later wrote about it in her journal, She moves now with
tremendous power [The younger geishas] fluttered about Katayama with
reverence for this aged but remarkable dancerThis theater was a feminist
theater long before we Western women took to cutting our hair (Scolieri 90).
She had been inspired once again by the strength of the old geisha and also
by the unity of the women. Thanks to her mother, she already had some
feminist opinions, but after this performance she wanted to emphasize the
strength and power of women through dance.
Ruth was always harder on herself than any of her audiences or critics,
but when she performed all her self-criticism melted away. She said, When I
am dancingwhen I am at any time expressing reality, I am nearer reality

Summerhays 6
and in a more harmonious state of being than at any other time. I find a real
escape from the limited sense of life I ordinarily have (Somerville 140). Ruth
wrote a poem that describes her beliefs of dance as well as gives an example
of her overarching ideals on life:
Dance Divine
The gestures
Of our right and left hands
In the meetings and partings
Of our rhythms
Are the fulfillment of our completed selves.
In the endless avowal
Of that self hood which is divine,
We use our translucent bodies
In a new language
To express the glory of our love. (Shelton xvii)
Despite her largely inspiring discoveries and connections of the individual
with the divine, those who followed after her were quick to forget her work.
As her dance successors broke away from the art of Ruth St. Denis, the next
generation of moderns admitted there was little in Denishawn art they
wanted to keep. We want to dance about ourselves as individuals, in line
with the best psychological teachings of our age. Weas man, the center of
the worldwant to dance about ourselves (Schlundt 11). Her methods and
inspirations may have been rejected, but no one can deny the impact Ruth

Summerhays 7
made on dance history. She consistently bettered herself and her audiences
in finding the ultimate connection of body, spirit, and mind through dance.

Summerhays 8
Works Cited
Charon, Daniel. "Limon and Verone." Dance History Lecture. Utah, Provo. 13
Mar. 2015. Lecture.
Denis, Ruth St. An Unfinished Life; an Autobiography. New York: Harper,
1939. Print.
Desmond, Jane. Dancing out the Difference: Cultural Imperialism and Ruth
St. Deniss Radha of 1906. Signs 17.1 (1991): 28-49. Chicago
Journals. 1991. Web. 2 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/3174444?
seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents>.
Schlundt, Christena L. Into the Mystic with Miss Ruth. New York: Dance
Perspectives Foundation, 1971. Print.
Schlundt, Christena L. The Professional Appearances of Ruth St. Denis & Ted
Shawn; a Chronology and an Index of Dances, 1906-1932. New York:
New York Public Library, 1962. Print.
Scolieri, Paul. "Rhythms of Resurrection: The Comebacks of Ruth St. Denis."
Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory 22.1 (2012): 89107. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.
Shelton, Suzanne. Ruth St. Denis: A Biography of the Divine Dancer. Austin: U
of Texas, 1990. Print.
Somerville, Kristine. "The Logic of Dreams: The Life and Work of Ruth St.
Denis." The Missouri Review 36.4 (2013): 123-41. Web. 4 Apr. 2015.