Monday, July 11 – “Wisdom Comes Dancing” by Ruth St. Denis
I spent my morning in HERO Coffee Bar, a small but wonderful coffee bar in the loop. I’m a big fan. It didn’t take me that long to get through this book, since it’s just collected essays and poems and speeches, but I didn’t have the foresight to bring the next book on my list, because that would make too much sense.
Ruth St. Denis is notorious for her cultural appropriation. I just want to start off by saying that I approached this week super wary of her and her use of “the Orient” (her word, not mine) in her work. This book didn’t exactly help, but I guess it didn’t hurt much.
To start off, St. Denis is extraordinarily hippy-dippy in her writing. It’s all about spirituality and being connected to your body and the universe and using dance as a form of worship. It’s not exactly up my alley, but someone must have been on board with it.
Her forays into cultural appropriation are “justified” by the fact that she talks to a few people about the culture she intends to dance about. She makes no real effort to learn about the culture, or learn about its forms of dancing, really; she tries to get the right “atmosphere” by using appropriate costumes and scenery and then decides to use a culture in whatever way she sees fit from there.
She’s also very into Delsarte, who attempted to reconcile thought and bodily motion. She spends a lot of time talking about how we should try to truly understand our bodies and how they function, but she also says that our bodies are merely a vessel for worship and religion. Needless to say, I’m confused and less than convinced.
I’m dubious that my further readings will make me any less wary of St. Denis, but it’s indisputable that her work had a great effect on modern dance in America. I just wish she’d done it all with a bit more awareness and respect.