Ted Shawn

Often called "The Father of American Dance", Ted Shawn was born in 1891. In his early 20s he was dancing professionally in Los Angeles. He teamed with Norma Gould, and in 1913 they starred in a series of short films for Thomas Edison, including Dances of the Ages (1913). In 1914 he met and married dance star Ruth St. Denis. They became a huge hit on the theater circuit and started the famous Denishawn Dance School in Los Angeles. Among their pupils were movie stars Lillian Gish and Louise Glaum. D.W. Griffith hired Shawn and St. Denis to choreograph and appear in his famous scene from Intolerance (1916), the dance on the steps before the huge city gates of Babylon. Shawn also appeared in Cecil B. DeMille's Don't Change Your Husband (1919) as a faun in a fantasy scene with Gloria Swanson and famously kissed her for 28 seconds. During the 1920s Shawn and St. Denis toured the US with their extravagant Denishawn dance company, which included Louise Brooks. They were a huge hit on tour, on Broadway, in recitals, and even in vaudeville. The act broke up in the 1930s, however, and Shawn started the nation's first dance company for men. Out of the Denishawn schools came star dancers like Martha Graham, Charles Weidman and Doris Humphreys. Shawn also appeared in a number of documentaries on dance as well as TV shows of the 1950s. He founded the famous Jacob's Pillow Dance Center in Massachusetts in 1932 which, as of this writing, is still going strong. At his peak in the 1920s, Shawn rivaled Rudolph Valentino, Ramon Novarro, and John Gilbert as a male sex symbol, based largely on his exotic dances and skimpy costumes Ted Shawn died in 1972.