By William “Skip” Deegans
The delightful Irish dancers who performed recently at Lewisburg’s Carnegie Hall may have been surprised to know that one of America’s most famous dancers and his male company performed on the same stage in 1935. When he died in 1972, The New York Times described Ted Shawn as the “founding father of modern dance.” Notoriously handsome, one can only imagine that few, if any, young ladies at Greenbrier College for Women missed Shawn’s performance.
Born in Kansas City in 1891, Shawn was a divinity student at the University of Denver when he was temporarily paralyzed by diphtheria. For physical therapy he took up dance and abandoned his plans of becoming a minister. He first dance experience was with the Metropolitan Opera. In 1914, he married Ruth St. Denis, and they started the Denishawn Dance Company and School. Among their students was Martha Graham who went on to form the Martha Graham Dance Company.
Shawn and Denis separated in 1930, and he sought refuge on a run-down farm in Massachusetts called Jacob’s Pillow. It was there that Shawn started the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 1941, and it continues today. After buying the farm, Shawn found out that it had been a station on the Underground Railroad. Fittingly, Shawn included artists of color and international artists in all the programs at the festival.
Photo: Courtesy of Springfield College.
Sources: The West Virginia News, The New York Times, Berkshire Eagle, www.jacobspillow.org.
