COLORLINES/TUMBLR

tusksfamily:

“Ruth St. Denis and Denishawn dancers in Yoga meditation.”
1915 

So yeah, the philosophy that dance traditions from all cultures “belong to the dance” can lead to a pretty cool fusion of dances. But it often seems like Denishawn productions crossed the line from inspiration into appropriation. Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn were obviously smart, worldly people of the early 1900’s. They appear to have had genuine respect for the dance traditions of the world, and by simply acknowledging them as something other than “primitive” dances, they had a huge impact on how dance developed in the following years. Maybe that alone was radical for the time. However, it’s hard to look at a lot of the photos of their productions without wondering if they really had a clear understanding of the global dance traditions that they performed. Dance is typically a highly symbolic, often ritualistic performance. Divorcing the steps and the costumes from their cultural meaning in order to present a show might present a fantastic show, but it leaves out a huge part of those dance traditions. What fascinates me about Denishawn is the idea that these intellectual figures who shaped the future of dance were really sort of just playing dressup with the dances of cultures of which they probably had a fairly shallow understanding, and definitely limited experience.

This is one of a series of posts over at Tusks Family, all on the Denishawn dance troupe. An intriguing look at a mostly-forgotten chapter in the history of race-bending cultural appropriation in America.