As part of 45 Days Dance Stories, I’m still looking back at the body of work by the one and only Ruth St. Denis. she was one of the key proponents of Indian Dance and Hindu Philosophical thoughts through her meditatively choreographer pieces.
Today I wish to share Ruth St. Denis’s depiction of the East Indian Nautch Dance, where the women is explorer and seductress, performer and enchantress. This piece of archival footage was shot in 1944 and has been restored and made accessible by the Chicago Film Archive.
Intrigued, want to delve further into the Artist and Dancer? Then Ruth St. Denis: A Biography of the Divine Dancer (1990) by Suzanne Shelton is a great place to start.