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St. Denis (Ruth) Papers and Addenda
mssStDenis
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Ruth St. Denis papers and addenda
Creator:
St. Denis, Ruth, 1880-1968
Identifier/Call Number: mssStDenis
Physical Description:
18 Linear Feet
(22 boxes, 42 binders and 2 oversize items)
Date (inclusive): 1904-2007
Date (bulk): 1930-1970
Abstract: This collection contains the papers of
Ruth St. Denis (1879-1968) an American modern dancer and co-founder of the Denishawn School
of Dance, chiefly dating from the 1930s-1970s and consisting of scrapbook binders,
photographs, audiovisual materials, correspondence, newsletters, and ephemera. Materials in
the collection reflect the work of St. Denis and her husband and dance partner, Ted Shawn,
related to dance and dancers. There is also much material about St. Denis' effort to have
her studio and school become a non-profit entity and her desire to create an artist colony
in Hemet, California.
Language of Material: English.
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Some audiovisual material not
available for paging until reformatted. Please contact Reader Services for more
information.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from
or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The
responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Ruth St. Denis papers and addenda, The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection is made up of several separate gifts: Janice Seaman, August, October and
December 1993; Robert Lovelace, November 14, 2003; and purchases from Elliott Mittler,
January and February 2010, and April 2013 (Addenda). One volume, "Songs of Senescence" by
Jane Sherman was a gift from Jane Lehac, November 12, 2003.
1. The majority of the collection came from Janice Seaman. The material given to the
Huntington by Robert Lovelace and purchased from Elliott Mittler is incorporated in the
collection but noted on their folders.
2. Although many of the binders have dates in their title, almost every binder contains
material spanning a different date range. These actual dates are the dates given in
parentheses after the binder title. For example, Volume 1 is titled "To 1920" but actually
contains material covering the years 1906 to 1976.
3. Due to the number of photographs (both dated and undated), the cataloger put the dated
photographs in folder with specific inclusive dates (ex. 1916-1938). For the undated
photographs, the cataloger split these up by photograph size (ex. 8 x 10") and dated the
folders [before 1968] (the year St. Denis died).
4. The cataloger put the negatives and slides with the original photographs when they
could be identified; if they could not be identified, they went into the appropriate
"Negatives" or "Slides" folder.
5. The cataloger did not listen to any of the A-V material.
6. The Addenda contains very similar material as the main collection. And was cataloged in
a similar fashion.
Ruth St. Denis (born Ruth Dennis) was born in 1879 in New Jersey. She began dancing as a
child. Her early training included Delsarte technique, ballet lessons with the Italian
ballerina Maria Bonfante, social dance forms and skirt dancing. She began her professional
career in New York City in 1892, where she worked as a skirt dancer in a dime museum and in
vaudeville houses. In 1898, Ruth was noticed by David Belasco, a well-known and highly
successful Broadway producer and director. He hired her to perform with his large company as
a featured dancer, and was also responsible for giving her the stage name "St. Denis." Under
Belasco's influence, Ruthie Dennis became Ruth St. Denis, toured with his production of
"Zaza" around the United States and in Europe, and was exposed to the work of several
important European artists, including the Japanese dancer Sado Yacco and the great English
actress, Sarah Bernhardt. St. Denis began studying Hindu art and philosophy, and offered a
public performance in New York City of her first dance work,
Radha, together
with such shorter pieces as
The Cobra and
The Incense. A
three-year European tour followed. She was particularly successful in Vienna, Austria, where
she added
The Nautch and
The Yogi to her program. Her later
productions, many of which had religious themes, included the long-planned
Egypta
(1910) and
O-mika (1913), a dance drama in a Japanese style.
In 1914 St. Denis married Ted Shawn, her dance partner, and the next year they founded the
Denishawn school and company in Los Angeles. During that time, St. Denis's choreographic
style broadened to include group numbers occasionally derived from Occidental as well as
Oriental sources. Among her choreographic innovations were "music visualization"—a concept
that called for movement equivalents to the timbres, dynamics, and structural shapes of
music in addition to its rhythmic base—and a related choreographic form that she called
"synchoric orchestra." Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn were also instrumental in creating the
legendary dance festival, Jacob's Pillow in Becket, Massachusetts. In 1925, St. Denis, Ted
Shawn, and the Denishawn Dancers took a year-long dancing tour in the Orient.
St. Denis and Shawn separated, both professionally and personally, in 1931, though they
never divorced. St. Denis, who retired briefly from public performance, founded the Society
of Spiritual Arts and devoted much of the rest of her life to promoting the use of dance in
religion. In 1940, with La Meri, she founded the School of Natya to continue the teaching of
South Asian dance. She resumed performing in 1941 with an appearance at Jacob's Pillow
Festival, where she continued to appear annually until 1955. Often called the "first lady of
American dance," she remained active into the 1960s.
Ruth wrote an autobiography entitled
Ruth St. Denis, an Unfinished Life in
1939. She died in Los Angeles in 1968 and was inducted into the National Museum of Dance C.
V. Whitney Hall of Fame in 1987 along with her former husband Ted Shawn. Shawn died in
1972.
This collection contains the papers of American dancer Ruth St. Denis and includes
scrapbook binders, photographs, negatives, and slides, ephemera, audio-visual materials,
correspondence, and newsletters. Subjects of the entire collection include: Ruth St. Denis,
Ted Shawn, American dance and dancers, dance instruction and notes, exercises and warm-up
routines, various dance types (international as well as American), famous dancers from
around the globe, Denishawn dancers, the Ruth St. Denis Center, the Ruth St. Denis
Foundation, the Ruth St. Denis Theatre Intime, Jacob's Pillow dance festival, American Dance
Film Association, Society of Spiritual Arts Church, the various teachers and pupils at St.
Denis' dance studio and school, the Orient trip the Denishawn dancers took in 1926, as well
as dance productions and events St. Denis put on throughout her career. There is also much
material about St. Denis' effort to have her studio and school become a non-profit entity
and her desire to create an artist colony in Hemet, California.
More specifically, several dancers show up in the notebooks and photographs, including:
Harold Kreutzberg, Peter di Falco, La Meri, Karoun Tootikian, Miriam Schiller, Jean Léon,
Gladys Bowen, Antonio Gades, Devi Dja, Doris Humphrey0, Mary Wigman, and Martha Graham.
The series "Binders" includes 42 volumes of material related to Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn,
the Denishawn dancers, etc. They are like scrapbooks and contain several different formats
of materials including photographs, clippings, programs, dance notes, correspondence and
financial documents. The material in the binders were left in their original order (as they
came to the Huntington Library). It seems that the majority of the material was gathered and
put together by Dorothy Lee Trifal, Ruth St. Denis' assistant and the manager of St. Denis'
dance studio. The first 19 volumes are organized (and were titled) with dates and date
spans. The next 23 volumes are organized alphabetically by their titles (ex. "American Dance
Film Association"). Some of the titles are cataloger supplied.
The Photographs, Negatives, and Slides series contains 409 photographs, negatives and
slides. Although the majority of the photographs are of Ruth St. Denis in dancing poses,
there are several other categories of photographs including: Ted Shawn, dance performances,
special events and celebrations, other dancers, the dance studio and students, the film "He
is Risen," and Jacob's Pillow. Photographs can also be found in the Miscellaneous series in
the material regarding "The Dancing Prophet" as well as the Oversize series.
The Ephemera and Miscellaneous series contains a variety of formats including: programs,
publications (magazines as well as printed books), miscellaneous material such as one letter
by Forrest Coggan to Dorothy Lee Trifal, and a postcard from Forrest Thornburg to Dorothy
Lee Trifal. The majority of this material is correspondence, documents and contracts for the
film; some authors include Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, Alfred Frantz Stury, Director of the
Ruth St. Denis Center, film maker Edmund F. Penney, and Janice Lovoos. The series also
contains several printed manuscripts written by St. Denis including "Dialogue for a Temple
for Prayer For Artists," "Poems," "The Divine Dance," "Current Biography," and a notebook
belonging to St. Denis. There is also a copy of the published book
Lotus Light
written by Ruth St. Denis in 1932.
Also included is a scrapbook with clippings and photographs of dancers and two published
volumes of poetry by Jane Sherman (who was a Denishawn dancer). There is one box dedicated
to material related to the film "The Dancing Prophet" about Ruth St. Denis (the film reel is
in the A-V series).
The audio-visual material consists of cassette tapes, reel-to-reel/magnetic tapes, albums
(records), and one VHS tape. This material consists of interviews with Ruth St. Denis,
speeches by St. Denis, her reading from her journals, music, some composed by Clifford
Vaughan, and dance performances. There is also a reel of the film "The Dancing Prophet." A
lot of what is on the reel-to-reel/magnetic tapes and some of the albums can also be found
on the cassette tapes. The majority of the A-V material is undated. It is organized by
type/format and then alphabetical by title (if it had one).
The Oversize series contains: Sheet music (some with dance instructions and photographs,
which are arranged alphabetically by title), some of which is written by Clifford Vaughan,
images of Ruth St. Denis, and two photograph albums with photographs of various dancers and
celebrities (most of which are not identified), one of these is also a scrapbook with
programs from her various performances. The series also contains oversize photographs of
Ruth St. Denis.
The Individually Housed Items include a glass plate negative of Ruth St. Denis ("Devi Ja,"
1951), a copy of the two-volume
Ruth St. Denis: Pioneer & Prophet: Being a
History of Her Cycle of Oriental Dances
by Ted Shawn, a poster of Ruth St. Denis,
and a banner of Ruth St. Denis.
The Addenda (84 items total) contains correspondence (between Ted Shawn, Dale Lefler, and
E. Marie Albery) and newsletters by Ted Shawn (1945-1962) as well as photographs of Ruth St.
Denis, Ted Shawn, and other dancers. It also includes several copies of programs from their
dance events/shows (including Jacob's Pillow), brochure for St. Denis' dance school. There
is a program for a show with Martha Graham, signed by her and a printed book for the dancer
Barton Mumaw showing him in various costumes, signed by him. Also included is a galley proof
of St. Denis' autobiography "Ruth St. Denis: An Unfinished Life" (1939). Consists of two
boxes (one is oversize).
The collection is organized in the following series:
- Binders
- Photographs, Negatives and Slides
- Ephemera and Miscellaneous
- Audio-Visual
- Oversize
- Individually Housed Items
- Addenda
Former call number: mssSt. Denis papers.
Existence and Location of Copies
Selected A/V items from this collection have been digitized. Digital reproductions are
available in the
Internet
Archive.
Roseman, Janet Lynn.
Dance was her religion: the sacred choreography of Isadora
Duncan, Ruth St. Denis and Martha Graham
. Prescott, Ariz.: Hohm Press,
2004.
Shawn, Ted.
Ruth St. Denis: pioneer & prophet; being a history of her cycle
of oriental dances
. San Francisco: printed for J. Howell by J. H. Nash,
1920.
St. Denis, Ruth.
Ruth St. Denis, an unfinished life, an autobiography.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939.
St. Denis, Ruth.
Wisdom comes dancing: selected writings of Ruth St. Denis on
dance, spirituality, and the body
. Seattle, WA: PeaceWorks, 1997.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Dance -- Philosophy.
Dance -- Religious aspects.
Dance -- Study and teaching -- United States -- History -- 20th century
-- Sources
Dance teachers -- United States
Dancers -- United States
Modern dance -- History -- 20th century -- Sources
Religious dance.
78 rpm records.
Audiocassettes -- United States.
Clippings -- 20th century
Ephemera -- 20th century
Letters (correspondence) -- United States -- 20th century
Magnetic tapes -- United States.
Manuscripts -- United States -- 20th century
Negatives (photographic) -- United States -- 20th century
Phonograph records -- United States -- 20th century
Photographs -- United States -- 20th century
Programs (documents) -- United States -- 20th century
Sheet music -- United States -- 20th century
Destiné, Jean Léon
di Falco, Peter
Dja, Devi, 1914-
Gades, Antonio, 1936-2004
Graham, Martha
Humphrey, Doris, 1895-1958
Kreutzberg, Harold
La Meri, 1898-1988
Mumaw, Barton, 1912-2001
Shawn, Ted, 1891-1972
Wigman, Mary, 1886-1973
Denishawn Dancers
Denishawn Repertory Dancers
Denishawn School of Dancing
Jacob's Pillow
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
Albery, Marie
Coggan, Forrest
Lefler, Dale, 1914-2011
Shawn, Ted, 1891-1972
Sherman, Jane, 1908-2010
Thornburg, Forrest
Vaughan, Clifford, 1893-1987