southeast Asia on the

American Dance

Stage

SPAFA JOURNAL VOLUME THREE NUMBER TWO 1 7

1915-1955BY PROFESSOR RICHARD A. LONG

dance -pieces referring to or derived from various

. Southeast Asian dance traditions have been presented on the

concert-theatrical stage in the United Sates since early in the

twentieth century by several Euro-American dance artists for

whom Asian or Oriental dances became signature pieces

and who became known as propagandizers of Indian and

Soutlwast Asian dance.

Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis "Balinese Fantasy"

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The best-known of these artists wereRuth St. Denis and Ted Shawn(whose collaborative efforts wereknown by the name Denishawn from1915 to 1931), La Mori (RussellMeriwether Hughes), Xenia Zarinaand Hadassah (Epstein). In all cases,these performers had a considerablemeasure of involvement with dancesof India as well as with those ofSoutheast Asia. The most frequentlypresented Southeast Asian dancestyles invoked were those of centralJava, Bali, Siam and Cambodia.

denishawn

Ruth St. Denis' earliest dances wereof Indian inspiration. Her programmesof 1906 included impressionistic piecessuch as Radha, Incense and Nautch. She performed these both in Europeand the United States for most of hercareer. Denishawn, created in 1915,extended its orbit to Southeast Asiain its very first year with Danse Javanese, choreographed by TedShawn and danced by companymember Ada Forman. Thechoreography had little to do withJava since in earlier versions of thesame piece had been 'Indian', then'Egyptian'. The dance was alsoperformed under the title Court Dance of Java and Javanese Mannikin.

In 1918 Ruth St. Denis choreographeda solo Danse Siamese, following this

later in the year with a group pieceDance of the Royal Ballet of Siam. The latter used vaguely Siamesecostumes but was clearly also animpressionistic piece. It is interestingto note that the cast included DorisHumphrey, later to be a pioneer ofAmerican modem dance.

In 1921 it was Shawn's turn topresent Siam. His Siamese Suite drewfrom the Ramayana and had threesections presenting the abduction ofSita, the fight between Rama andRavana, followed by Sita's rescue andthe triumphal reunion. Also in 1921Shawn created a solo entitled simplyJava, danced by Martha Graham. Thiswas followed by a Javanese piece forthe company, The Princess and the Demon featuring Martha Grahamand the young Charles Weidman.In 1924 Shawn choreographedBalinese Fantasy, danced by himselfand St. Denis. Fantasy, it surelywas, judging from the costumes.

In August of 1925, Denishawnembarked on an Oriental tour whichwas to last about fifteen months andto bring the two choreographers intofirst-hand contact with many of thecultures they had sought to express.The countries visited included Japan,China, Burma, India, Singapore, Java,Indo-China, Hong Kong, and thePhillipines. St. Denis and Shawnsought to see dance and dancerseverywhere they went and theyreported intense experiences inmany places. A few years laterShawn was to summarize hisexperiences in the book Gods Wlw Dance (1929).

Four significant Southeast Asianworks came out of the experience

of the Asian tour: A Javanese Court Dance by St. Denis and DorisHumphrey, A Burmese Yein Five bySt. Denis, Impressions of A Wayong I'uncti and Danse Cambodienne byShawn. Interestingly, the Burmesepiece was performed in Java, and St.Denis' Javanese piece was performed inManila, Hong Kong, Shanghai andJapan. Impressions of A Wai/ong Punva was also presented in Japan, butDanse Cambodienne was notperformed until the company's returnto the United States. Descriptions ofthe creation of Court Dancer, andYein Pwe are given by Jane Sherman.Sherman makes the followinginteresting commentary about St.Denis' 'authentic' pieces:

Certainly these later danceswere never as enthusiasticallyreceived by audiences as wereher earlier and undoubtedlyless authentic works—odd as thismay now seem. (p. 134)

No account of St. Denis andSoutheast Asia should omit mentionof the group piece she created in1930 under the title Anghor-Vat. Itpurports to dramatize a legendwhose subject is the coming of theNaga Queen, portrayed by St. Denis,to invigorate the Khmer King,through a mystic union. There areonly slight direct references toCambodian dance, however, and theballet falls into the category ofimpressionistic works. Thecostuming of the Naga Queenwas spectacular and undoubtedlycontributed much to the success of thiswork which came near the end ofthe Denishawn era.

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ZiJ Men "Burmese tnm

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la Meri

During the very first joint tour ofSt. Denis and Shawn in 1914, before Denishawn was actually proclaimed,the couple appeared in San Antonio,Texas. There they were seen by an18-year old female dancer who borethe masculine name RussellMeriwether Hughes, later modifiedprofessionally to La Meri. La Merihad already begun the study ofballet and Spanish dance, but shewas profoundly impressed by the'orientation' of Ruth St. Denis. LaMeri's career as a Spanish dancerwas effectively launched in 1923,and in 1928 she had her first NewYork recital. By this time she hadalready plunged into the study ofIndian dance and was in pursuit ofother Asian dance traditions.

A decade later, after extensivetouring in Europe and the Americasand having written a book, Dance As An Art Form (1931), La Meri travelledfor study purposes to Asia visitingChina, Japan, India, Burma, Java,Malaya and the Phillipines. Shestudied briefly with masters inYogyakarta and Surakarta. In Jakarta(then Batavia), she was instructed inthe Javanese court dances, Srimpiand Bedaya, by Soeharsano. InBurma, she studied with U Po-Sein

who had instructed St. Denis andShawn during their Burmese sojourn.In Java, together with thedistinguished Indian dancer RamGopal, she lectured on Indian dance.

In 1940, together with Ruth St.Denis, La Meri opened the School ofNatya in New York City. The Schoolevolved into the Etlmographic DanceCentre.

In a 1948 recital programme, LaMeri was able to list as sources ofher art India, Java, Burma andSiam, as well as Arabia, China,Japan, the Pacific Isles and LatinAmerica. Her recital programmesfrequently included a piece inJavanese Wayong Wong style, Rama Breaks the Bozo, drawn from theRamayana, as well as a Burmese Five.

La Meri wrote the article "OrientalDance" for the influential The Dance Encyclopedia (1949, 1967) edited byAnatole Chujoy, in which she treatsbriefly the dance of Burma, Java,Indo-China (Siam and Cambodia)and Bali.

Xenia Zarina

The biographical background ofXenia Zarina remains elusive. She issaid to have been born in Brusselsand to have studied with Fokine,Mordkin and Novikoff, all famousRussian ex-patriate teachers, in the

United States. At her New Yorkdebut recital in 1935, Zarinapresented vaguely modern dancesand dances of Mexico, where shewas then living. At some point shehad spent time in Iran, teachingdance (ballet) to the royal offspring.Zarina undertook a study tour inAsia in the late thirties, one outcomeof which is the interesting andgenerally accurate Classic Dances of the Orient. Apart from chaptersdevoted to India and Japan, a chapter each is given to Thailand(she uses the post-World War IIdesignation for the country),Cambodia, Java and Bali.

Apparently Zarina was in PnomPenh in 1937. While she did nothave direct access to the RoyalCambodian Dance Troupe, she wasable to study with Princess Say SongVan, the estranged wife of the King'sbrother, who directed and manageda troupe under the indirectpatronage of the French colonialgovernment. Zarina describesperformances in various settingsincluding the Royal Palace and atAnghor Vat. The account providesseveral pages of description of dancetechnique and offers photographs ofPrincess Say Sang Van, several of herdancers, and of dance scenes at theRoyal Palace and Anghor Vat

In Thailand Zarina studied withKhunying Natakanuraksa describedas "the Directress of the Royal Ballet".In 1938, the activities of the RoyalTroupe were still conducted at theGrand Palace and Zarina describes a rehearsal for a performance of Khonconducted there. The performance,for the March New Year'scelebration, was held in Sanam

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Xenia Zarina "Legong"

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Luang. Photographs of KhunvingNatakanuraksai, of Nsi SriYanthanaphon, the mask maker, andof varied groups of dancers andstudents illustrate the account. Fora discussion of the technique of Thaidance, the reader is referred to thechapter on Cambodia. Obviouslv, onlvthe training offered to womendancers is discussed there.

In Yogyakarta Zarina was able, aftersome preliminary discouragement, toenroll in Krida Beksa Wiramaunder the tutelage of PangeranTedjekoesoemo, the co-founder of theschool. Her description of theregimen there and of the variousauxiliaries to the dance are excellent.She describes rehearsals at thepalace or Kraton of Yogyakartaand she was invited to attend a performance of Bedayo at theKraton of Surakarta. The Javanesechapter contains a section on techniqueand a selection of photographsrelating to dance in Yogyakarta.

Zarina's account of Bali is the mostcircumstantial of the four chapterssummarized here. She focused onlearning Legong. Her teachers wereIda Bagus Rai Nyomaman Cria ofSanur and "Bjoman" Kaler inDenpasar. She mentions one S. M.Milevitch, a musician whoapparently travelled with her, whostruggled with the task oftransposing the effect of the Balinesegamelan to the piano. Among danceperformances she describes areDjanger, performed by adolescentsand by children five to eight, a Kebiyar Duduk and a Barong-Rangdadrama. A description of thetechnique of Legong and a portfolioof photographs complete the Balinese

chapter.

While there are many photographs ofZarina herself in the book, costumedin the poses of the various dancestyles, it is difficult to trace her actualperforming history. She did perform,however, in August 1955 at Jacob'sPillow, the dance colony founded byTed Shawn. Her Southeast Asiaselections were "Oleg", from thedescription a typical BalineseLegong, and a more elusive Balinese"humming bird" piece. She alsoperformed a Cambodian 'legend". Thesame programme featured Ruth St.Denis, then nearly eighty, performingtwo of her Indian Nautch dances.

Hadassah, the last of thepropagandizers of Southeast Asiandance whom we shall consider,was born around 1910 in Israel(then Palestine) into the HasidicJewish tradition, her father being a cantor or liturgical singer. Hasidicreligious practice includes dancing.Her religious background, then,favoured a predilection for dance.Her first exposure to Indian dance andmusic came in Palestine in observingIndian soldiers there in the semce ofthe British. Hadassah Spira arrived inNew York early enough to see at leastone of the Denishawn concerts atLewissohn Stadium in New York City(the last occurred in 1931). Shortly

after arriving in New York, shemarried Milton Epstein who aidedher in her studies of Asian dance,often serving as lecturer when sheperformed.

Hadassah's first New Yorkappearance was in 1938 as a memberof the Japanese company of KenjiHinoki. She studied with La Meriand, during the 1939 New YorkWorld's Fair, with Javanese dancerswho performed at the Fair. HerNew York debut as a solo artist wasa recital in 1945, in which sheperformed Colck, described as a "ceremonial court dance of Java". In1950 she presented a company to thepublic. Between these dates, in1948, she performed a Balinesesequence Kebiyar-Legong at a concertof the New Dance Group. For hercompany in 1952 she created an"Indonesia Suite" which included a trance section based on BalineseSanghyang.

fran Exotic to Ethnic to Multicultural

-rom the beginning of her careerRuth St. Denis was motivated by a quest for spirituality in dance andbelieved, from her reading, that itwas to be found in the dances ofAsia. She was not drawn, however,to a study of the vocabularies ofmovement of Asian dance. Hercreations were poetic, impressionistic,mediated more by costume, rather

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hadassah

Hadassah "Goiek"

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than bv authentic music andmovement. The same was true of hercollaborator Ted Shawn. Their sense ofthe 'living' Asia was, in fact, hardlydifferent from their sense of 'dead'Egypt, Azteca, and Mesopotamia.

St. Dems and Shawn were profoundlyaffected by the experiences of theDenishawn tour of Asia, but in a veryreal sense the die had already beencast; in consequence their presentationsof the dances of Asia remained exoticand must enter history as such.

With the remaining dancers discussedabove, however, the focus shifts toauthenticity and the classification'ethnic' describes more fully theirendeavors. As already indicated, eachshared with Denishawn a profoundinterest in dances of India, particularlyBharata NIatyam, and tended to seedances of Peninsular and InsularSoutheast Asia as affiliated forms. Butin each case, in a variety of ways,they were able to develop proficiencyin the vocabulary of Siamese, Javanese

and Balinese dance and to present theseto American audiences in a fashionwhich would be recognizable toindigenous performers and audiences.

The ethnic performances neverreached the wide audiences thatDenishawn claimed for its own, butLa Meri and Hadassah were knownto and respected by a smalleraudience of dance aficionadosduring their careers. Strictly speaking,however, they have had nooutstanding heirs among non-Asiandancers in the United States.

An international era in danceperformance began to be writtenduring the 1950s and later,characterized by visits of soloists andgroups from various Asian countries,including those of Southeast Asia. Atpresent with increasingly largecommunities of Southeast Asians inthe United States, we can expectto witness the participation ofSoutheast Asian dance in a multiculturalperformance context.

References

Adam Lahm, "Hadassah: A CareerKissed by the Gods," Arabesque: A Magazine of International Dance 14,3 (September/October 1983).

La Meri (Russell MeriwetherHughes), Dance Out the Ansivers: An Autobiography (New York: MarcelDekker, 1977).

Christena L. Schlundt, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shaivn: A Chronology and An Index of Dances, 1906-1932 (NewYork: New York Pubic Library,1962).

Suzanne Shelton, Divine Dancer: A Biography of Ruth St. Denis (GardenCity, New York: Doubleday, 1981).

Jane Sherman, The Drama of Denislwivn Dance (Middleton, Conn.:Wesleyan, 1979).

Xenia Zarina, Classic Dances of the Orient (New York: Crown, 1967).

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