Biography
I believe that dance communicates man’s deepest, highest and most truly spiritual thoughts and emotions far better than words, spoken or written.
Born Kansas City, Missouri, October 21, 1891. Died Orlando, Florida, January 9, 1972.
Ted Shawn left his divinity studies at the University of Denver to become a dancer in the early 1900s. Shawn and his wife, Ruth St. Denis, were intensely interested in exotic and oriental cultures; both sought out existing dance forms from all over the world as the basis for their choreography. A dervish is a member of any various Muslim ascetic orders, some of which carry on ecstatic observances, such as violent dancing and whirling. It follows that Shawn, who was interested in the eclectic, philosophical and idealistic, would be drawn to the dervish as an idea for a dance. Mevlevi Dervishpremiered on April 15, 1929 in Carnegie Hall. The next year Shawn began to lead a kind of seminarian life at Jacob’s Pillow, his home in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Jacob’s Pillow became and remains a major dance school and performance center that is the home of Shawn’s choreography.
Ted Shawn's Works
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Olympiad: A Suite of Sports Dances
Premiere Date: 1938
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Mevlevi Dervish (original footage)
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Mevlevi Dervish
Premiere Date: 1929
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Gnossiene (original footage)
Premiere Date: 1919