Ruth St. Denis

Ruth St. Denis – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Explore the life, career, philosophy, and legacy of Ruth St. Denis, the American dance pioneer who fused spirituality and movement. Learn her famous quotes and what we can learn from her journey.

Introduction

Ruth St. Denis (January 20, 1879 – July 21, 1968) stands as one of the true pioneers of modern dance in America. Through her groundbreaking approach, she bridged the realms of body, spirit, and art — drawing on Eastern philosophies and mysticism at a time when dance in the U.S. was still dominated by European ballet traditions. Her efforts not only expanded what dance could express, but also opened doors especially for women in the performing arts. Today, her influence lives on through her students, her writings, and the ongoing performance of her signature solos.

Her life and work still resonate: she challenged conventional aesthetics, embraced the spiritual dimension of art, and invited dancers and audiences alike to view motion as a language of the soul.

Early Life and Family

Ruth St. Denis was born Ruth Dennis on January 20, 1879 in Newark, New Jersey.

From a young age, Ruth’s mother also guided her in the techniques of Delsarte-based physical culture — exercises combining gesture, voice, and expressive movement. Later, Ruth would recall that exposure to François Delsarte’s methods provided a foundation for her later experiments in dance.

She also engaged in childlike theatricals: inventing melodramatic scenes, fainting, collapsing, and acting before an audience of friends, all of which fostered an early sense of drama and embodiment.

In 1892, her mother supported Ruth’s move to New York to audition for dance or theatrical training. There she encountered the dance performance of Genevieve Stebbins (a proponent of Delsarte methods), an event Ruth later described as the “real birth of my art life.”

Youth and Education

Ruth’s formal dance and theatrical training was varied and often informal. Her early work included performing skirt-dance in vaudeville and smaller venues. Worth’s Family Theatre and Museum and on the vaudeville circuit.

She also had lessons or exposure in ballet, Spanish dance, and acrobatics, although her training remained eclectic rather than strictly classical.

Her career in theater began in earnest when she joined the company of the Broadway producer David Belasco, working in productions like Zaza, The Auctioneer, and Du Barry. Du Barry in Buffalo, she saw a cigarette advertisement depicting the Egyptian goddess Isis. That moment captivated her imagination and set her on the path to exploring Eastern imagery and spirituality in dance.

In 1905 she left the Belasco company and adopted the stage name “St. Denis” (adding “Saint” and losing one “n”) to give her name a more evocative resonance.

Career and Achievements

Solo Vision & “Oriental” Influence

Once she broke away from conventional theater, Ruth St. Denis began to choreograph and present solo works inspired by Eastern myth, ritual, and symbolism. Her first major solo was Radha (1906), set to music from Delibes’ Lakmé, drawing on Hindu mythology. The Incense and The Cobras (also 1906).

Critics often labeled her work “exotic” or “Oriental,” though her interpretations were rarely accurate from a cultural standpoint. Her goal was not ethnographic fidelity, but rather to evoke spiritual symbolism, theatrical expression, and cosmic metaphor.

Her solos were known for combining theatrical scenery, lighting, props (such as incense), costume, and movement — blending concert dance with a dramatic stage presence.

Founding Denishawn

In 1914, Ruth met Ted Shawn, a dancer ten years her junior. He became her student, creative partner, and in August 1914, her husband. Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts in Los Angeles.

Denishawn was revolutionary in its range: students studied ballet (barefoot), folk and ethnic dances, Delsarte, Dalcroze eurhythmics, and improvisation. The philosophy was inclusive: that dance is a universal language, drawing on all motions of humanity across time and culture.

Within Denishawn’s walls, a generation of American modern dance luminaries were trained: Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Lillian Powell, Evan-Burrows Fontaine, and others.

Denishawn was also instrumental in establishing Jacob’s Pillow, which became one of the iconic American dance festivals.

Later Years & Spiritual Dance

By the late 1920s, Denishawn began to fragment. In 1930 the partnership between Ruth and Ted dissolved professionally (they eventually separated though reportedly never divorced formally).

In 1938, she founded a dance program at Adelphi University, one of the earliest university-based dance departments in the United States. School of Natya, focusing on dance forms inspired by her “Oriental” research.

During this period her work emphasized religious and spiritual themes. She created what she called “sacred dance” and choreographed works that fused Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and mystical ideas. Her Rhythmic Choirs of dancers attempted to elevate dance into ritual form.

Ruth also wrote extensively, publishing Lotus Light (a book of poems, 1932) and her autobiography, An Unfinished Life (posthumously 1969).

Even in her later decades, she continued to dance, teach, and lecture. Her later solos (e.g. Incense) remained in concert rotation.

She died on July 21, 1968, in Los Angeles (Hollywood), California at age 89.

Historical Milestones & Context

• Modern Dance Emergence: Ruth St. Denis worked in a period when American dance was dominated by European ballet imports. Her experimentation, theatrical solos, and spiritual aesthetics helped to birth a distinctly American modern dance vocabulary.

• Orientalism & Cultural Dialogues: Her use of Eastern imagery must also be seen through the lens of Western fascination with the “Orient” in the early 20th century. Scholars have debated the cultural appropriation in her work.

• Women in the Arts: St. Denis was a prominent woman in a male-dominated arts world. Her success as choreographer, teacher, and public figure challenged gender norms of her time.

• Institution Building: Through Denishawn and later university programs, she institutionalized dance education at a time when formal dance curricula were rare.

• Transmission of Lineage: Her students and their descendants shaped nearly every branch of American modern dance.

• Spiritual & Mystical Turn in 20th-Century Art: Her belief that dance could embody spiritual truth echoed broader modernist explorations into mysticism, transcendence, and the unconscious.

Legacy and Influence

Ruth St. Denis’s legacy is alive and multifold:

1. Lineage of Dancers & Choreographers
   Many of her students—Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman—became giants of modern dance and established new schools of technique and performance.

2. Dance Education Paradigm
   Denishawn’s eclectic training model, combining technique, improvisation, folk forms, and expressivity, influenced curricula across dance schools in America.

3. Continued Performance of Signature Solos
   Solos like Incense and Radha are still revived in programs such as The Art of the Solo.

4. Spiritual Dance Movement
   A student of hers, Samuel L. Lewis, founded the global Dances of Universal Peace, which published many of her writings and extended her vision of dance as a spiritual path.

5. Recognition & Honors
   In 1987, she was posthumously inducted into the National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame. Wisdom Comes Dancing) continue to inspire dance scholars and spiritual practitioners alike.

Her impact is felt not merely in movement technique but in the very idea that dance can bridge body, spirit, and philosophy.

Personality and Talents

Ruth St. Denis was a complex personality: intellectual, mystical, theatrical, and determined. Her mother’s grounding in science and her own interest in spiritualism and the occult shaped her outlook.

She was known for her dignity and purpose: she deleted “obey” from her wedding vows and declined to wear a wedding ring, asserting her own agency in marriage. She possessed both showmanship and seriousness: her stage works were theatrical, sumptuous, but underlaid by strong conceptual and spiritual intent.

Her talents included:

• Improvisational sensibility: she often allowed the body to find movements not pre-scripted

• Stagecraft: lighting, props, costumes, incense, and theater all were part of her vocabulary

• Philosophical articulation: she wrote and lectured on dance and spirituality

• Pedagogical vision: synthesizing multiple traditions into dance education

She had a lifelong curiosity—traveling, reading religious texts, exchanging ideas with thinkers, and integrating those insights into her work.

Famous Quotes of Ruth St. Denis

Here are selected quotes that encapsulate her philosophy and poetic voice:

“I see dance being used as communication between body and soul, to express what is too deep to find for words.” “The gods have meant that I should dance, and by the gods, I will!” “Remembering that man is indeed the microcosm, the universe in miniature, the Divine Dance of the future should be able to convey with its slightest gestures some significance of the universe.” “We can hear the silent voice of the spiritual universe within our own hearts.” “It is not a question of who dances but of who or what does not dance.” “The real message of the Dance opens up the vistas of life to all who have the urge to express beauty with no other instrument than their own bodies … with no dependence on anything other than space.” “We should realize in a vivid and revolutionary sense that we are not in our bodies but our bodies are in us.” “I believe that my whole creative life stemmed from this magic hour under the stars on that hilltop.”

These lines reflect her merging of poetry, mysticism, and movement.

Lessons from Ruth St. Denis

1. Art as spiritual inquiry
   St. Denis teaches us that art need not be divorced from meaning. She treated dance as a sacred exploration, not just entertainment.

2. Synthesizing tradition and innovation
   She drew from diverse sources (Delsarte, folk, myth, theater, Eastern philosophy) and wove them into a coherent personal vision. Innovation need not reject tradition.

3. Embodiment of philosophy
   Her belief that body and spirit are intertwined invites us to perceive our own physicality as expressive of deeper truths.

4. Courage to challenge norms
   As a woman in early 20th-century America, she pushed against assumptions about proper behavior for female artists.

5. Legacy through teaching
   Her greatest influence may lie in her students and in institutional structures (Denishawn, university dance programs). A creative life can plant seeds far beyond the self.

Conclusion

Ruth St. Denis stands among the towering figures of American dance history—not merely for her choreographic works, but for her whole vision: to bridge the seen and unseen, the body and the cosmos, movement and meaning. Through her experiments in sacred dance, her founding of Denishawn, and her mentorship of modern dance pioneers, she helped redefine what dance could be in the 20th century and beyond.

Her voice still speaks: in the motion of dancers, the spirituality of movement, and the continuing dialogue between art and inner life. May her legacy inspire creative souls to keep seeking, keep moving, and keep weaving dance into the thread of deeper human purpose.