Barbara Andres Collection, Ruth St. Denis Collection


Overview of the Collection
Repository:	Adelphi University
Creator:	Andres, Barbara
Title:	Barbara Andres, Ruth St. Denis Collection
Inclusive Dates:	1923-2009
Bulk Dates:	1956-1961
Quantity:	39 linear feet (19 boxes)
Abstract:	Barbara Andres first met Ruth St. Denis as a teen while studying at Jacob’s Pillow. Their relationship continued after Andres left Jacob’s Pillow, and for seven years she studied at the Ruth St. Denis studio in Hollywood, California. Andres also toured with St. Denis in 1957 and 1959 throughout the northern and southern parts of the United States, assisting in lectures and performing with St. Denis’s Rhythmic Choir. In 1960, Barbara Andres performed at Woodruff Hall, Adelphi University where she worked with St. Denis at the Department of Religious Arts. Later in her career, Andres studied and danced with Madame Avreil Tong. Many of Andres’s original dances stem from the inspiration of Tong and St. Denis’s Asian themed dances.
Language:	Collection materials are in English.

Biographical History

Barbara Andres was born in Lynbrook, New York on August 29, 1936. A promising young dancer, she began studying dance at the American School of Ballet in New York City at the age of fourteen. She later became the youngest student to be admitted to the world renowned Jacob’s Pillow. Jacob’s Pillow was founded in 1933 by Ted Shawn, its director. While studying at Jacob’s Pillow, Andres met and briefly worked with Ruth St. Denis. After she completed high school, Andres joined St. Denis in California where she worked, studied and later performed with her. Andres was Ruth St. Denis’s student, and she even called Andres her “disciple.”

For seven years Barbara Andres studied at the Ruth St. Denis studio in Hollywood, California. She toured with Ruth St. Denis in 1957 and 1959 throughout the northern and southern parts of the United States, assisting in lecture demonstrations and performing with her Rhythmic Choir in churches and colleges. Andres performed St. Denis choreography and drew inspiration from it, which she later incorporated into her own dance style.

In the late 1950’s Barbara Andres and Ruth St. Denis were invited to participate in Adelphi’s Department of Religious Arts, and in 1960 Andres performed a program at Woodruff Hall. During the early 1960s, Barbara Andres also studied and danced with Madame Averil Tong, one of China’s most renowned creative artists. Barbara Andres’s repertoires stem from the creative works of Ruth St. Denis and Madame Averil Tong. She hoped to preserve these dances from the Orient.

Many of the items in Barbara Andres’s collection once belonged to Ruth St. Denis. Ruth St. Denis was born in rural New Jersey in 1879. Her dance career began at age 16, and by 1898 she was discovered by David Belasco, a well-known and highly successful Broadway producer and director. She toured with Belasco’s company around the United States and Europe as a featured dancer for five years. In 1914, she met and married a young dance-innovator named Ted Shawn. In 1915, they formed Denishawn Company and School, which had an “all-inclusive” dance concept, including Oriental and other ethnic styles, freestyle movements, and primitive forms, among others. In 1931, St. Denis and Shawn parted but were never legally separated, and Denishawn was reorganized, becoming the Ruth St. Denis School of Dancing and Its Relative Arts while Shawn went on to found Jacob’s Pillow School and Festival and Ted Shawn’s Men Dancers.

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