The Life Of Ruth St. Denis
comparative Essay
1192 words
The Life of Ruth St. Denis
In 1879, on a small New Jersey farm, Ruth Dennis was born. She was the daughter of Ruth Emma Dennis, an extremely independent, determined, and educated woman. Her Mother was a highly trained physician. At a very early age, St. Denis was encouraged to study dance. Her training included social dance forms and skirt dancing, lessons from Maria Bonfante, and Delsarte technique.
St. Denis's professional career began in 1892. In New York City, she worked as a skirt dancer in dime museums and vaudeville houses. "Dime museums featured "leg dancers" (female dancers whose legs were visible under their short skirts) in brief dance routines."# In that type of atmosphere, St. Denis was worked to the bone and forced to perform her routine at least ten times a day. However, in 1898, David Belasco noticed the young Ruth during one of her vaudeville performances. Belasco was a very successful and well known Broadway producer and director. He hired Ruth to perform as a dancer in his company. He was also responsible for giving her the stage name "St. Denis." The popularity of Ruth St. Denis exploded in the United States and Europe as she toured with his production of "Zaza." During her touring, she was introduced to many influential artists, such as Japanese Dancer Sado Yacco and English actress Sarah Bernhardt.
St. Denis's creative juices really began to flow after meeting these artists. She became extremely interested in Eastern cultures, such as Japan, India, and Egypt, and their forms of dance and drama. Bernhardt's overdramatic acting style was also very influential to St. Denis. Ruth loved how the tragic fate of Bernhardt's characters always took center stage. After 1900, "St. Denis began formulating her own theory of dance and drama based on the techniques of her early training, her readings into philosophy, scientology, the history of ancient cultures,"# and the work of artists like Yacco and Bernhardt. A few years later, during a tour with Belasco, she saw an advertisement for Egyptian cigarettes. The ad was simply an image of the Egyptian goddess Isis. Nevertheless, this simple image aroused St. Denis's imagination and she immediately began reading about Egypt. Her interest in India soon followed.
In this essay, the author
- Narrates the life of ruth st. denis, who was born in 1879 on a small new jersey farm. she was an independent, determined, and educated woman.
- Describes how ruth st. denis's professional career began in 1892, when she worked as a skirt dancer in dime museums and vaudeville houses.
- Explains that st. denis's creative juices began to flow after meeting artists like yacco and bernhardt. she became interested in eastern cultures, such as japan, india, and egypt.
- Explains that st. denis left belasco's company in 1905 to begin her career as a solo artist.
- Describes how st. denis began offering private lessons to women after one of her main customers died on the titanic. she hired ted shawn, who added an entirely new range of popular dance forms, from tango to ragtime.
- Narrates how ruth st. denis and ted shawn separated in 1931. she retired from public performance and founded the society of spiritual arts and the school of natya with la meri.
- Explains that st. denis promoted the use of dance in religion for most of her life, which led to the formation of a religious art church. the hindu spiritualist swami papa ramdas visited los angeles for the sole purpose of being her guest speaker.
- Narrates how the woman's dance exhibited serpentine movements of an ethereal type and created waves of peace that rose and fell in cadence.
- Compares st. denis to isadora duncan, a dancer of her time, who was inspired by divinity. she broadened her choreographic style by incorporating movements equivalent to the rhythm, dynamics, structure, and shape of music.
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In this essay, the author
- Describes martha graham as one of the unique dancers and choreographers in the 20th century. she trained and inspired a generation of artists, including alvin ailey, twyla tharp, paul taylor, and merce cunningham
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- Cites pbs' "about the dancer martha graham." language arts 77.5 (2000): 446. proquest. web. accessed january 19, 2014.
- Cites the york times, may 29, 1988, and a&e networks television's "martha graham biography."
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In this essay, the author
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412 wordsRead More