Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts

US modern dance company and school founded in 1915 by dancers Ruth St Denis (1879-1968) and Ted Shawn (1891-1972) in Los Angeles. It was designed to improve body, mind, and soul, and provided the training ground for numerous exponents of modern dance including Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman (1901-1975). The company toured extensively until 1931.

The school reflected the exotic influences of its two charismatic founders. Ruth St Denis' seductive interpretations of dances from India, Egypt, and Asia - such as Cobras, Incense, and Radha all 1906 - were hugely popular in both America and Europe. She choreographed the Babylonian dances in D W Griffith's film Intolerance 1916, making use of sinuous body movements and draperies. Shawn drew on American Indian and aboriginal folklore for inspiration for his dances, which he toured with Ted Shawn and his Men Dancers through the 1930s. His efforts to raise the masculine role in dance from its secondary status paved the way for subsequent male stars, such as Nureyev, to emerge.