Ruth St. Denis

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Ruth St. Denis (1917)

Ruth Saint Denis , née Ruth Dennis, (born January 20, 1879 in Newark , New Jersey , † July 21, 1968 in Hollywood , California ) was an American dancer , choreographer and teacher .

biography

Theosophy and American transcendentalism shaped Ruth St. Denis from an early age. Later she also dealt with Buddhism , Christian Science , Vedanta and the teachings of Léonide Ouspensky (1902–1987). She received her first artistic lessons from her mother, who taught her according to the method of François Delsarte . This Delsarte system largely formed the basis of their dance technique. She learned Spanish dance with Karl Marwig , ballet with Ernestina Bossi and pointed dance with Marie Bonfanti . At the age of 15 she began her career as a skirt dancer in Wjorth's Family Theater and Museum and then appeared in various other New York theaters in the field of vaudeville, alternately as a "Spanish dancer", "highkicker" or as an acrobatic dancer.

David Belasco engaged her in March 1900 for a guest performance of his play Zaza in London. She starred in his productions such as Madame Du Barry and The Auctioneer for the next four years . A cigarette poster with a picture of the goddess Isis made a lasting impression on her and inspired her in 1906 to create her first dance creation Radha, Dance of the five senses , which she presented for the first time on January 28, 1906 in the New York Theater. In the same year The Incense and The Cobras were created . Her first and only stay in Europe began in the summer of 1906 at the Aldwych Theater in London. Auguste Rodin drew it during her guest appearance at the Théâtre Marigny in Paris.

Ruth Saint Denis and her husband Ted Shawn

She was particularly successful in Berlin ( Komische Oper and Wintergarten ) and in Vienna, where Hugo von Hofmannsthal published his essay The incomparable dancer about her . On February 9, 1908, she performed her new dances The Yogi and The Nautch in the Ronacher Palace . In the summer of 1909 she returned to New York City and undertook the first of numerous recurring tours of America.

Her full-length dance production Egypta premiered on December 12, 1910 at the New Amsterdam Theater in New York. In 1913 she created the Japanese dance dramas O-Mika and Bakawali based on stories by Lafcadio Hearn . In 1914 she married the ten years her junior theology student Ted Shawn and founded the Denishawn dance school with him in Los Angeles in 1915 .

Both shared an interest in religious dance. One of their joint ventures was the Dance Pageant of Egypta, Greece and India (1916). Her influence on modern dance in America was lastingly consolidated through her students Martha Graham , Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidmann . The influence of the Denishawn School on early American cinema is unmistakable. Almost all the studios in Hollywood sent their stars to Denishawn. Ruth choreographed a. a. personally the Babylonian dances in David Wark Griffith's monumental film Intolerance (1916).

With their ensemble both went on a major tour to the Far East in 1925/26. In addition to the group pieces, Ruth continued to create solo dances such as The Spirit Of The Sea , White Jade , Angkor-Vat . After Denishawn's dissolution (1931), depictions of the Madonna like Masque of Mary (1934) became her subject. She published her volume of poetry Lotus Light in 1932 and her biography An Unfinished Life in 1939 .

Together with La Meri (Russel Meriwether Hughes) St. Denis founded their School of Natya , which is dedicated to oriental dance . The dance critic Walter Terry described Ruth as "the first lady of American dance".

In 1942 she moved to Hollywood. In the 1940s and 50s, Phillip Baribault filmed several dances. Her last performance was in May 1966 with Incense at Orange Coast College in California. She died in Hollywood on July 21, 1968.

Ruth St. Denis in Germany

Ruth St. Denis in Radha , around 1904/05

During her European tour (1906 to 1909) Ruth St. Denis traveled from Paris to Berlin in October 1906. With her choreographies Radha , The Incense and The Cobras , she performed at the Komische Oper until mid-November and then in the Wintergarten Varieté . She drew particular inspiration from the encounters and conversations with the most famous artists and intellectuals of the time: Hugo von Hofmannsthal , Harry Graf Kessler , Max Reinhardt , Gerhart Hauptmann and Ludwig von Hofmann, among others . The art patron Harry Graf Kessler introduced Ruth St. Denis to his friend Hofmannsthal and to Max Reinhardt, the director of the German Theater at the time. Reinhardt planned to cast Ruth St. Denis for the "Dance of the Seven Veils" in Oscar Wilde's drama Salome and to bring out a piece specially written for her. Gerhart Hauptmann was to write this piece. Both productions did not materialize. But in the recognition that was given to her choreographies, she found self-confidence and confirmation:

“What I was doing was viewed from an objective perspective. My dance was weighed against the other arts, its relationship to philosophy, poetry, painting and sculpture was examined and evaluated, its influence on all these arts was discussed. It was a profound revelation of a new attitude towards art and myself, and I think I was never as happy as in those first days in Germany. "

Oriental themes and motifs, as staged by Ruth St. Denis, were extremely popular at the time. Likewise, with her appearances she met the stereotypical male fantasy of the “Orientalin”. She was ascribed both erotic charisma and religious grace. For example, Harry Graf Kessler noted:

"[S] he is the Bayadere, in which only the two poles: animal beauty and mysticism without any intermediate scale of spiritual or sentimental tones are present, genderless deity and merely sexual woman, the contrast in the highest potency triggering both effects."

Ruth St. Denis traveled to Prague in mid-December 1906 and then to Warsaw and Vienna. In February 1907 she returned to Germany and performed all over the country until the end of the year. In 1908, in addition to stations in Austria, Monte Carlo and London, engagements in Munich and Berlin followed. At the turn of the year 1908/09 she was offered her own dance school in Weimar and thus a permanent perspective. But she moved back to the USA:

“I knew that having my own theater would make all my dreams come true. I would be able to bring about the ritual dramas I was thinking about. I could feel safe professionally. But amid all of my interest in other cultures and other peoples, I was deeply patriotic and felt that my life [...] should develop and be lived in America. "

In October 1909 Ruth St. Denis returned to New York. She never visited Germany again, but in difficult situations in later life she let her memories of her successes dominate her. So she thought of another tour of Germany at the end of the twenties. Her marriage to Ted Shawn was in a crisis at the time. The financing of their joint dance center Denishawn also stood on shaky ground.

At the beginning of 1928 she published in the New York press that she would be leaving for Europe in the fall of 1928. She was hoping for similar confirmation as at the beginning of her career, but the German art scene had changed. Ruth St. Denis knew about the stylistic and conceptual tendencies of expressive dance during the Weimar Republic . But she found no real access to the art of Mary Wigman , Gret Palucca or Rudolf von Laban . Their plans for a second tour of Germany were broken up anyway.

Choreographies (selection, chronological)

Ruth St. Denis in The Incense
  • Radha . The Mystic Dance of the Five Senses : first performed on January 28, 1906; New York Theater, New York; Music: Léo Delibes
  • The Incense : first performed on March 22, 1906; Hudson Theater, New York; Music: Harvey Worthington Loomis
  • The Cobras : first performed on March 26, 1906; Hudson Theater, New York; Music: Léo Delibes
  • Egypta : First performance: December 12, 1910; New Amsterdam Theater , New York; Music: Walter Meyrowitz
  • The Legend of the Peacock : first performed on June 27, 1914; Ravinia Park, Chicago; Music: Edmund Roth
  • Tillers of the Soil : First performance on July 29, 1916; Greek Theater , University of California / Berkeley; Music: Walter Meyrowitz
  • Brahms Waltz : first performance on April 17, 1922; Academy of Music, Lynchburg; Music: Johannes Brahms
  • Liebestraum : First performance on April 17, 1922; Academy of Music, Lynchburg; Music: Franz Liszt
  • Ishtar of the Seven Gates : first performed on October 15, 1923; Apollo Theater, Atlantic City / New Jersey; Music: Charles Tomlinson Griffes (arrangement: Louis Horst)
  • The Spirit of the Sea : First performance on October 15, 1923; Apollo Theater, Atlantic City / New Jersey; Music: RS Stoughton
  • Masque of Mary (Color Study of the Madonna) : first performed at Christmas 1934; Rutgers Presbyterian Church, New York; Musical arrangement: Sol Cohen

Writings of Ruth St. Denis

  • Wisdom comes dancing. Dance, spirituality and body. Selected writings edited and provided with a foreword by Kamae A. Miller and an essay by Hugo von Hofmannsthal . Santiago Verlag, Goch 2002, ISBN 3-9806468-7-4 .
  • Ballet of the States. In: Dance Chronicle. Studies in Dance and the Related Arts. 20th year, number 1/1997, pp. 52–60.
  • Dance as spiritual expression. In: Frederick Rand Rogers (Ed.): Dance: A Basic Educational Technique. A Functional Approach to the Use of Rhythmics and Dance as Prime Methods of Body Development and Control, and Transformation of Moral and Social Behavior. Dance Horizons Inc., New York 1980, pp. 100-111, ISBN 978-0-8712-7108-2 .
  • The Dance as Life Experience. In: Jean Morrison Brown (Ed.): The Vision of Modern Dance. Princeton Book Company, Princeton / New Jersey 1979, pp. 21-25, ISBN 978-0-9166-2213-8 .
  • Religious Manifestations in the Dance. In: Walter Sorell (Ed.): The Dance has many Faces. Columbia University Press, New York / London 1968, pp. 12-18, ISBN 978-0-2310-2968-1 .
  • An unfinished life. To Autobiography. Harper & Brothers, New York 1939.
  • Lotus Light. Poems. Boston / New York 1932.

Secondary literature

  • Susan Brady (Ed.): After the dance. Documents of Ruth Saint Denis and Ted Shawn , Theater Library Assoc., New York 1996, ISBN 0-932610-17-X .
  • Jane Desmond: Dancing Out the Difference: Cultural Imperialism and Ruth St. Denis's Radha of 1906. In: Ann Dils, Ann Cooper Albright (eds.): Moving History, Dancing Cultures. A Dance History Reader. Wesleyan University Press, Wesleyan 2001, pp. 256-270, ISBN 978-0-8195-6413-9 .
  • Kimerer L. LaMothe: Passionate Madonna: The Christian Turn of American Dancer Ruth St. Denis. In: Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 66th volume / number 4, winter 1998, pp. 747–769.
  • Sandra Meinzenbach: "Dance is a language and a script of the divine ...": Art and life of Ruth St. Denis. Florian Noetzel Verlag, Wilhelmshaven 2013, ISBN 978-3-7959-0934-5 .
  • Sandra Meinzenbach: "Art, Religion, and Love: What a Glorious and Divergent Trinity!" - Ruth St. Denis. In: New old femininity. Images of women and art concepts in free dance: Loïe Fuller, Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis between 1891 and 1934. Tectum, Marburg 2010, pp. 223–298, ISBN 978-3-8288-2077-7 .
  • Brygida M. Ochaim, Claudia Balk: Variety dancers around 1900. From sensual intoxication to modern dance, exhibition by the German Theater Museum in Munich, October 23, 1998–17. January 1999. , Stroemfeld, Frankfurt / M. 1998, ISBN 3-87877-745-0 .
  • Christena L. Schlundt: Into the Mystic with Miss Ruth. Dance Perspectives 46. Marcel Dekker Verlag, New York 1971.
  • Christena L. Schlundt: The Professional Appearances of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. A Chronology and an Index of Dances 1906-1932. Literary Licensing (LLC), New York 1962, ISBN 978-1-2586-3519-0 .
  • Katja Schneider: The Divine Dance - The appearances of Ruth St. Denis. In: Friedrich Reininghaus, Katja Schneider (ed.): Experimental music and dance theater (Handbook of Music in the 20th Century: Volume 7). Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2004, pp. 28-30, ISBN 3-89007-427-8 .
  • Suzanne Shelton: Divine Dancer. A Biography of Ruth St. Denis. Doubleday & Company, Garden City / New York 1981, ISBN 978-0-3851-4159-8 .
  • Jane Sherman, Christena L. Schlundt: Who's St. Denis? What is she? In: Dance Chronicle. Studies in Dance and the Related Arts. Volume 10, number 3/1987, pp. 305–329.
  • Walter Terry: Miss Ruth. The "More Living Life" of Ruth St. Denis. Dodd, Mead & Company, New York 1969, ISBN 978-0-3960-8437-2 .
  • Walter Terry: The Legacy of Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis. Dance Perspectives 5. Marcel Dekker Verlag, New York 1960.
  • Helmut Zander : Body Religion. Expressive dance around 1900: Loïe Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis. In: Volker Drehsen , Wilhelm Gräb, Dietrich Korsch (eds.): Protestantism and aesthetics. Religious and cultural transformations at the beginning of the 20th century. Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2001, pp. 197-232, ISBN 3-579-05347-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ruth St. Denis quoted in: Sandra Meinzenbach: "Dance is a language and a script of the divine ...": Art and life of Ruth St. Denis. Florian Noetzel Verlag, Wilhelmshaven 2013, p. 59. Also in: Sandra Meinzenbach: Europa , page 3. Original English source: Ruth St. Denis: An Unfinished Life. To Autobiography. Harper & Brothers, New York 1939, p. 91.
  2. ^ Harry Graf Kessler on October 29, 1906 to Hugo von Hofmannsthal . In: Hofmannsthal, Hugo von / Kessler, Harry Graf: Correspondence 1898-1929. Published by Hilde Burger. Frankfurt am Main, 1968, p. 131.
  3. ↑ Ruth St. Denis quoted in: Sandra Meinzenbach: "Dance is a language and a script of the divine ...": Art and life of Ruth St. Denis. Florian Noetzel Verlag, Wilhelmshaven 2013, p. 69. Original English source: Ruth St. Denis: An Unfinished Life. To Autobiography. Harper & Brothers, New York 1939, pp. 125f.
  4. ^ The New York Times , January 8, 1928: The Dance: Ruth St. Denis, the American Dancer, Will Tour Europe in Search of New Inspiration. From John Martin.
  5. ↑ Sandra Meinzenbach: "Dance is a language and a script of the divine ...": Art and Life of Ruth St. Denis. Florian Noetzel Verlag, Wilhelmshaven 2013, p. 181ff.

Web links

Commons : Ruth St. Denis  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME St. Denis, Ruth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Saint Denis, Ruth; Dennis, Ruth (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American dancer, choreographer and educator
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Newark , New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH July 21, 1968
Place of death Hollywood