Genevieve Stebbins

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Genevieve Stebbins 1902

Genevieve Stebbins (born March 7, 1857 in San Francisco , California , † September 21, 1934 in Monterey ) was an American author , teacher and expressive dancer of the school of Delsarte .

Life

Genevieve Stebbins' father was the lawyer James Cole Stebbins (1824-1888) and her mother Henrietta Smith. Her mother died when she was only two years old. Even as a young girl, she loved to express herself physically and to dance.

Theater career

In 1875 she went to New York City and decided to pursue a career in theater. She made her first stage appearance on February 19, 1877 with the play Our Boys at the New Broadway Theater. For the next eight years she appeared there regularly in various stage plays. In the spring of 1884 to 1885 she briefly returned to New York to perform there.

Your studies at Delsarte

In 1876 she began a two-year study period with the theater innovator Steele MacKaye . She tried out the dramatic expression originally developed by François Delsarte . Stebbins gave classes at the Boston University School of Oratory - now Emerson College - for MacKayes according to the Delsarte system . At times she was given full responsibility for the Delsarte program at the university. Together with her sister-in-law Mary S. Thompson, Stebbins opened two Delsarte schools, one in Boston and the other in New York. In February 1888, Stebbins and Thompson presented their first Delsarte matinee at the Madison Square Theater (also The Theater at Madison Square Garden ) in New York City. That year she also wrote a book called Society Gymnastics and Voice-Culture: Adapted from the Delsarte System . In 1893 she founded the New York School of Expression at Carnegie Music Hall (now Carnegie Hall ). One of her students was Hedwig Kallmeyer , who later became Elsa Gindler's teacher . In 1907 she retired. In 1913 she published a book on her system of physical training.

Private life

Stebbins was married to Joseph A. Thompson from 1888 until their divorce in 1892. Since her husband was related to Mary Thompson, their partnership ended after the divorce. Stebbins married the journalist Norman Astley in April 1892. It is not known whether Stebbins had children from either of the marriages.

Influences

Stebbins' work created new opportunities for women of the late 19th century in America in terms of feminine expression and freer physicality, especially expressive dance. She provided the means, arguments and the model of how a woman could behave and express herself in society according to her class. Her work according to the Delsarte system promoted modern dance , which developed in America and Europe in the 20th century.

literature

  • Genevieve Stebbins: The Genevieve Stebbins system of physical training. Edgar S. Werner, New York 1899
  • Genevieve Stebbins: Dynamic breathing and harmonic gymnastics. A complete system of psychical aesthetic and physical culture. Edgar S. Werner, New York, 2d ed. 1892

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f John A. Garraty: American National Biography. Volume 20, Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-520635-5 , pp. 598-599.
  2. ^ California Death Index, 1905-1939
  3. ^ Carrie J. Preston: Modernism's Mythic Pose. Oxford University Press, 2014, ISBN 978-0-199-38458-7 , p. 73 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
personal data
SURNAME Stebbins, Genevieve
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author, teacher and expressive dancer from the Delsarte school
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1857
PLACE OF BIRTH San Francisco , California
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 1934
Place of death Monterey