Ruth St Denis in the 'East Indian Nautch Dance' (1932)

[OohLaLaHolly]

I love this!

[nickwallacesmith]

hi OohLaLaHolly - yeah, it's great isn't it!

[natrajkumari]

it's always funny to see how westerners interpret eastern arts.

i remember hearing about this when i was in my dance history class, but we never watched it. the teacher spent more time explaining this dance then the actual kathak dance form that inspired it (which sucked for me since i do kathak and had let her know i was relying on her summary on it to introduce my final "exam").

[nickwallacesmith]

hi natrajkumari - yes, it is weird how westerns go east - as a kid, eastern mysticism was being turned to all sorts of end in the counter culture - suddenly it becomes something else

[merrill531]

The correct name of this dance should be "East Indian Nautch Dance". It's possible that the date is not correct. My mother danced with Miss Ruth and the makeup was done differently by this time. It was, indeed, one of her more famous dances and this is clearly a very valuable video of her work. Enjoyed it.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi, when i was making the little video, i googled ruth st denis and so many sites described the dance as i then titled it but of course mistakes are made then multiply! so the correction is much appreciated. and i take your point about the change in make-up indicating a later date. apart from the spelling issue, i wonder if the title in the form i had was a shortened way of naming it, given so so many sites use this form? glad you liked the upload - v. interesting your mother danced with her!