Josh Mercado

W0659575
Ted Shawn and His Contribution to Dance

Ted Shawn, born Edwin Myers Shawn on October 21, 1891 in Kansas City, Missouri.
During his third year of post-secondary education in the University of Denver, 1911,
he contracted diphtheria, which is a bacterial infection on the respiratory system
which left him temporarily paralyzed from the waist down, forcing him to abandon
his studies in the University. He took up dancing as a type of physical therapy
during his recovery and made a debut as a ballroom dancer in 1913. He also taught,
choreographed and performed the year prior. In 1913, he created his first all-dance
film which he titled Dances of the Ages. This film compared primitive and
modern dancing and the tension between them in which Shawn devoted his
studies and writings to. (Scolieri 1) His company made a huge debut and toured
across the country in a years time. They toured 19 towns and cities and culminated
performances in New York. (Stowitts) He moved to New York in 1914, where he met
Ruth St. Denis, an international dancing legend who he later married and formed a
professional relationship with. (Scolieri 1) His contributions to the world of dance
include the techniques he created in order to evolved male dancing. He
incorporated non-doggerel music and the creation of music especially made for
dancing. He created dance forms that were appropriate for vigils and services in the
church and also provided an entry for ethnic dances which he incorporated into
American dance education. (Stowitts) He also created an all-male dance company
which assisted in the erasure of prejudice against American male dancers. Ignoring
traditions of classical and ballet music, he included ethic styles into dance to make
a more masculine appeal in the movement. His ideal was to eliminate the stigma
that was put across mens right to dance.
His use of thematic material began with pure American influences including
aboriginal, folk and popular culture. (Stowitts)
He established the Denishawn Dancers with Ruth St. Denis which ended in 1933
after the two had separated, then after he founded and toured with the Men
Dancers in 1933 which performed and ran until 1940 when too many of them were
drafted during WWII, and established the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and the
University of the Dance in the Becket, Massachusetts which still remains to be the
most valuable venues for dance.
In 1940 and 1941, Shawn leased the Pillow to others while maintaining control of its
general scope. The Ted Shawn Theatre was constructed in 1942, the same year
Shawn began the University of the Dance to succeed the educational program he

had started in 1934 as the Shawn School of Dance for Men. The school has
continued to evolve over the years and continues to this day.
In the 1950s, Shawn had become the ideal of male fitness and was even known to
be the Most Handsome Man in America and although he became the idol of
masculinity, he was coming to terms with the subject gender and sexuality while
becoming in tune with his homosexuality. He formed lifelong and life-changing
relationships with many people that have supported him in engaging the ideas of
gay culture and sexual difference and incorporating them into his craft. This
movement was tinder to the flame that inspired the gay movement in the United
States, bringing controversial reports into his art and the relationship between
sexuality and dance, naming Shawn as a pioneer to the American gay liberation.

Bibliography
1. http://www.jacobspillow.org/exhibits-archives/ted-shawn.php
2. http://www.thereaccessionoftedshawn.com/ (Not a source but this video is
very interesting )
3. http://www.stowitts.org/ted_shawn_bio.htm (Stowitts)
4. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/539126/Ted-Shawn
5. http://www.danceheritage.org/treasures/shawn_essay_scolieri.pdf (Scolieri)
6. http://www.danceheritage.org/shawn.html