© Doubleday and Company Used copies of this book are available on Amazon.com Renee Renouf reviews

St. Denis, with Ted Shawn and their Denishawn endeavors, created a training ground for the three great second generation modern dancer-choreographers: Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. A string of other dancers have written memoirs which augment dance information on the vaudeville hey-days over which St. Denis and Shawn reigned nearly supreme, combining savvy showbiz presentations and laudable aspirations towards art. Shelton includes some detailed descriptions of noted St. Denis solos.

Sheldon paints the context of St. Denis parental background and social norms of late 19th century American mores, strongly laced with spiritualist ideas floating liberally in mid-century western New York. Ruth Emma Hull, St. Denis' mother, earned a medical degree at the University of Michigan, the second Ann Arbor gave to a woman. A nervous breakdown followed ; Hull recuperated in a New York state spa in where women dressed without corsets, bathed daily and discussed social reform. St. Denis' English father, a constant inventor prone to alcohol, married Hull in a common-law ceremony a month prior to Ruth's birth January 20, 1879, just following his divorce. A son was born to the Dennis household at Pin Oaks, near Somerville, New Jersey where 'Em Dennis cultivated produce for sale, trying to provide further income by boarding artists. "Ruthie Dennis" grew up in this mixture where her strong proclivity for theatrics was encouraged; 'Em Dennis taught daughter Ruthie elements of the Delsarte system, adding whiffs of Theosophy and Christian Science.

At twelve, on money earned from selling watercress, Ruthie Dennis with her mother traveled to New York to be assessed by Karl Marwig, a noted ballet master of the day. Pronouncing her talented, 'Em Dennis began a steady campaign to see her daughter launched into a career which could provide for the family's livelihood. Ruthie was a willing figure in the campaign; a Mrs. Miller in New York City gave credit for lodging when they were in New York engagement hunting. During this time Ruthie was strongly influenced by Genevieve Stebbins' interpretation of Delsarte principles. She credited Stebbins for "the real birth of my art life."

With adolescence, Mother's admonitions and the sad example of a lively young woman senior by seven years, Ruthie's nascent energies of youth and adulthood were channeled towards a career. The career was briefly delayed by an aunt whose husband arranged to have Ruthie attend the Dwight Moody School, a Massachusetts school religiously based, lasting until Christmas.

Shelton paints a portrait of the 1894 theatrical world which Ruthie entered at tender 15 with everything from the Metropolitan Opera, the legitimate theater, vaudeville, private clubs and salon performances for wealthy patrons. That scene extended in varying form until the Depression and 'talkies, Ruthie's first job was as a solo dancer in Worth's Museum. Shelton describes it as the lowest rung of theatrical entertainment, but had an advantage; the tiny stage could not accommodate ensembles, and Ruthie's training was too scant to embrace ensemble conformity.

Shelton describes and analyses Ruthie's strategems for avoiding sexual liaisons as a means to climb into theatrical prominence, seeing it in the context of the Puritanical/prurient seesaw of American tastes with the theater as the safety valve. While women began attending the theater unaccompanied by men in the 1870's, The Metropolitan Opera's Vaudeville Club served as the New York Equivalent of the Paris Opera's Green Room, entertainment at various levels. Ruthie met architect Stanford White there, and other contacts led to a wider range of engagements.

Shelton describes Ruthie as a "skirt dancer" evolving a repertoire from a style and manipulation of this feminine apparel. She covers the loss of the Dennis' New Jersey farm, the family move to Brooklyn, Ruthie's two years at Packer College Institute, and from 19 to 21 touring in three productions and studying ballet. In 1900 David Belasco entered the Dennis radar; for four years Ruthie appeared in Belasco productions, the first of which Zaza, took Ruthie abroad and to London for the first time. Belasco is credited in changing Ruthie Dennis into Ruth St. Denis, the name surfacing in 1906 with her public premiere of Incense.

This all is prologue to the phenomenal St. Denis reception in Europe and the U. S., the symbiotic relationship with 'Em Dennis, Brother Dennis' supportive role, Ted Shawn's arrival in her life, their affinity, courtship, marriage and Ted's constant sparring for equal billing. The life of the Denishawn School in Los Angeles and in New York is well chronicled, the touring, much of it on the vaudeville circuit and the historic tour of the Far East. While semi familiar territory for American dance lovers, it still fascinates. The Depression real estate loss, Ted's venture at Jacob's Pillow are included, with the entrance in St. Denis' life of a Chinese intellectual "who made me a woman."

St. Denis' relocation to Los Angeles includes her war work in an airplane factory as did another dancer of her era, Maud Allen. Along with the change in her subject matter, she retained her scintillating capacity to look ahead, rely on her brother's practical assistance, never missing any chance to perform.

I remember the only time I encountered her was in San Francisco, in 1967, when she must have come at the invitation and arrangements of Klarna Pinska, her devoted rehearsal assistant. I went with the late Hindi poet S.H. Vatsyayan' St. Dennis remarked to him, "Oh, I was in Quetta. There was a big earthquake there." He later turned to me, smiled and said, "The earthquake was in the early 'Twenties." As part of her exposition/entertainment, St. Denis had a slightly grungy-hued length of pink jersey which she picked up with manicured fingers and said, "This is the beginning of wisdom."

Divine Dancer is one of the earliest biographies read possessing a copious, meticulous list of resources. Suzanne Shelton had access to the UCLA St. Denis archive, interviews with former protege(es), and the benefit of being unconstrained by a live subject. With intellect and a talent for research, Suzanne Shelton's biography of "Mother" Ruth St. Denis, is brilliant, captivating, brimming with moxie.