Ted Shawn

Ted Shawn (1891-1972) was an innovative American modern dancer, choreographer, and cofounder of the Denishawn school and company. Shawn was introduced to dance as therapy after an illness. Soon after beginning his dance career, he met and married Ruth St. Denis in 1914 and together they founded Denishawn and taught many of the early modern dancers including Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey. In 1933 he formed a group of all male dancers (uncommon at the time) and founded Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival near Lee, Massachusetts, as a summer residence and theatre for his dancers. After the group’s dissolution, Shawn developed Jacob’s Pillow into an internationally renowned dance hub. Shawn continued to make occasional appearances as a dancer, reviving his solos, choreographing new ones, and performing in works created for him by Myra Kinch, notably Sundered Majesty (1954), based on Shakespeare’s King Lear. He also lectured extensively and wrote several books.