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Stage Name |
Birth Name | | Ruth St. Denis |
Ruth Denis |
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Miss Ruth, as she was affectionately called, started acting out theater and ballet as a little child. Ruth started out as a cloak model, a six day bicycle race participant, a Skirt dancer, Toe dancer (Ballet) and actress. Denis had practically no ballet training except for a single class (Some say 3) with Bonfanti, but was kicked out of class. Genevieve Stebbins was very inspirational to Miss Ruth. Later in life she devoted herself to Christianity, and formed a church ( Divine Dance) and formed the Society of Spiritual Arts. David Belasco nicknamed her Saint, due to her air.
Her first experience with staging a play was with Egypta, but was abandoned due to expenses. She followed it by Radha in 1906 at the Hudson Theater in New York for a group of managers and a few other spots then back to the Hudson as a full dance program... it was a success. She would then leave for her first tour of Europe. While touring, she met great success abroad except in England, however Germany loved her. Returning home in 1909, she finally produced Egypta and O' Mika.
Dennis teamed with then dancer Ted Shawn in 1914 and soon after married forming the Denishawn Company and later a dance studio. The two separated in 1932 and she continued to run the school, till financial troubles forced her to close the doors. She would semi-retire until 1940, when she teamed with La
Meri and found new interest in Hindu and Oriental
dance. Ruth moved to southern California during W.W.II. Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn had a major impact on dance, Ballet, and Modern especially. |
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Birth Place |
Birth Date |
Spouse |
Offspring |
| Newark, New Jersey |
1/20/1877 - 7/21/1968 |
Ted Shawn |
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Night Clubs |
Theaters, etc. |
Stage |
| n/a |
Bijou Theatre (1901) |
1900 - Zaza |
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Criterion Theatre (1900) |
1901 - The Auctioneer |
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Hampden's Theatre (1928) |
1901 - Du Barry |
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Hudson Theater |
1928 - The Light of Asia |
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Jacobs Pillow |
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Lewisoh Stadium (1928) |
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Ziegfeld Theater |
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