Religion inside Denishawn
1 media/Ruth_St_Denis_-_Ted_Shawn_out-of-doors_photo_thumb.jpg 2019-11-20T16:39:44-08:00 Emily Swenson 189db03334c8ebbb2b5cd20f1b91b1a31c167142 35248 4 Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis in 1916. plain 2019-12-06T13:52:04-08:00 Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library. "Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in an out-of-doors photo, in costume, for National Geographic Magazine, April 1916, reprinted May 1951." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1915. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-85cf-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 Emily Swenson 189db03334c8ebbb2b5cd20f1b91b1a31c167142This page is referenced by:
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2019-10-28T17:43:35-07:00
The Spiritual and Religious influences inside Denishawn
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By Emily Swenson
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2019-12-07T06:36:52-08:00
The Denishawn School was created in 1915 by Ruth St. Denis and, her then partner, Ted Shawn. Denishawn worked as a transformative euphoria for dancers and the arts, where not just movements, but a passion was being taught. Religion and spirituality both played key roles in the making of many of the performances at Denishawn. The practice of looking into ones inner-self and beliefs as well as individuality in dancers was idolized by Denis and passed down in choreography to make each dancers style distinctive and unique .
Ruth Saint Denis used the work of physical drive and paired it with the divine. She saw and shared dance as a “ritual and spiritual practice” that was vital to be shared. It was her fusion of both dance expressions as well as spirituality that reeled in Ted Shawn after he was taken aback by her performances. She had a way of expression that was unmatched and connected to people on a deeper level. This is what was taught at Denishawn.
At Denishawn they had varied repertory incorporated spiritual exotica in solo, duet as well as group form these went on to bigger performances as well like the dance pageant of India, Greece, and Egypt. An example of one of these performances would be when Ted Shawn, due to his large infatuation with the ideals of greek philosophy, unveiled his Death of Adonis performance which is still studied today. The Death of Adonis performance was a solo choreographed by Ted Shawn in 1924. The performer, J.M. Tate, danced like the sculpture of Adonis, nearly naked and covered in a pale chalk like paint. Tate is showing himself in a pure form and paired with the whiteness of the paint he is covered in is like a sculpture. This is not just empowering the concept of the male body, beauty, and power, but also displays a sense of Greek spirituality that was revolutionary to the dance world when displayed on stage. The image on the bottom left shows Tate in costume while performing The Death of Adonis by Ted Shawn.
The connection between the spiritual world and religion was motivational in the performances at Denishawn. Men and women were taken memorized by the beautiful work of the dancers expressing things that had never been seen on the stage before and taking it to new limits.
“I have always tried to 'dance' . . . things that ordinarily are spoken or written, or preached or lived. The eternal quest for truth, the ecstasy of an instant's communication with a divine being, the harmony of rituals, beautifully performed, was the story of my art and my religious life.”(Ruth Saint Denis)
Information Sources
1 Rossen, Rebecca.Dance Teacher;Ruth St Denis & Ted Shawn, New York Vol. 29, Iss. 10, (Oct 2007): 120,122,124.
2 ,Cohen-Stratyner, Barbara.; A Brief Precis of the Careers of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn,Performing Arts Resources; New York, N. Y. Vol. 20, (1997): 1-4.
3 Macaulay, Alastair. “Review: Bringing Ted Shawn Back Into the Limelight.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Sept. 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/23/arts/dance/ted-shawn-review-jacobs-pillow.html.
