Oral Histories
Interview of Ruth St. Denis
Dancer and co-founder of the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts.
- Subtitle:
- Reflections on a Life in the Dance
- Series:
- Interviews not in a series, part one
- Topic:
- Dance
- Biographical Note:
- Dancer and co-founder of the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts.
- Interviewee:
- St. Denis, Ruth
- Supporting Documents:
- Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
- Language:
- English
- Copyright:
- Interviewee Retained Copyright
- Abstract:
- Childhood on New Jersey farm; first reading of Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health, 1899; artists and money; Ted Shawn and Shawn Dancers at Jacob's Pillow, Massachusetts; meeting Stanford White at Metropolitan Opera House, 1897 or 1898; David Belasco; Isadora Duncan's spontaneous use of universal rhythms; Pearl Wheeler's costumes for Denishawn; trip to Orient, 1926-27; "Radha" and Indian influences on dance; dancer's response to nature; theory of "balanced" government; Gandhi and nonviolence; Shawn's contribution to dance photograph collection at New York Public Library; need for fashion and manners; Denishawn School of the Dance, Los Angeles; Walter Terry; Denishawn magazine; writing poetry; Christian Science faith; Mary Baker Eddy; relationship of metaphysics to dance.