Dance We Must: The Art and Costumes of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, 1906-1940 - by Kevin M Murphy & Caroline Hamilton (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Ruth St. Denis (1879-1968) and Ted Shawn (1891-1972) pioneered modern dance in the United States with their company Denishawn, founded in 1914. A generation of modern dancers and choreographers, including Martha Graham, trained and first performed with the company. Artists who were inspired by or worked with St. Denis and Shawn include Auguste Rodin, John Singer Sargent, Katherine Dreier, Marcel Duchamp, and Joseph Cornell, among others. While there is a large body of literature on the relationship between the visual arts and dance in early twentieth-century Europe, there is no equivalent scholarship on Denishawn, America's answer to the Ballets Russes. Original research in this book makes an important contribution to the literature on modern dance, as well as American Modernism in the arts broadly. This heavily illustrated catalogue includes artwork, sets, ephemera, and especially costumes, many of which haven't been seen since they were worn in the 1930s. A significant portion of the visual materials and costumes, and of St. Denis's and Shawn's choreography, borrow from East and South Asian and Native American cultures; this publication interrogates the legacy of cultural appropriation and colonialism in dance. The materials also demonstrate St. Denis's and Shawn's stylistic and personal connections to American and European modernists, broadening an understanding of dance in the United States within the context of early Modernism"--

Book Synopsis

On America's first modern dance company and its many collaborators, with reproductions of costumes, sets, ephemera and more

Ruth St Denis (1879-1968) and Ted Shawn (1891-1972) pioneered modern dance in the US with their company Denishawn, founded in 1914. Incorporating elements from ancient, non-Western and Native American sources, Denishawn became the first important American dance company. A generation of dancers and choreographers, including Martha Graham, trained and performed with the company, and many artists, including Auguste Rodin, John Singer Sargent, Katherine Dreier, Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Cornell, collaborated with them.
This catalog reproduces artwork, sets, ephemera and especially costumes, many of which have not been seen since the 1930s. Some of the materials and costumes, as well as the choreography, borrow from East and South Asian and Native American cultures, and the publication interrogates the legacy of cultural appropriation in dance. The materials also demonstrate St. Denis and Shawn's stylistic and personal connections to American and European modernists, broadening an understanding of American dance in early modernism.