Ted Shawn was born Edwin Myers Shawn on October 21, 1891 in Kansas City, Missouri. After a battle with Diphtheria at the age of 19, he took up dance as a form of Physical Therapy. In 1914 he met Ruth St. Denis, married her, and together they started the Denishawn Dance Company and School. Many of today’s modern dancers can trace their roots to this company. Shawn and St. Denis separated and dissolved the Denishawn Company in 1930. That very same year, Shawn purchased a farm in the Berkshires called Jacob’s Pillow. Eventually this farm becomes the site for his schools and for the Jacob’s Pillow Dance festival (incorporated in 1942). From 1932 to 1933 Ted Shawn taught at Springfield College, then known as the International YMCA College. Through experiments conducted in his teaching, Ted Shawn formed the Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers dance company. This was the first all-male dance company in the United States. They toured throughout the United States, Canada, and England before disbanding in 1940. Ted Shawn died on January 9, 1972. Considered the first American man to achieve a world reputation in dance, Shawn influenced and provided opportunities for many promising young artists and students including Marth Graham, Charles Weidman, Doris Humphrey and Jack Cole.

Ted Shawn’s, and therefore Jacob’s Pillow’s, relationship with Springfield College began in 1932. Dr. Laurence L. Doggett, then President of Springfield College, met Ted Shawn in Florida and was impressed by his dancing. Doggett invited Shawn to give a lecture-demonstration at the college. After this first teaching engagement, Shawn taught dance at the school during the 1932-1933 school year, teaching a course in fundamentals of rhythm and folk dancing. Shawn insisted that his courses at the college be compulsory, so all students had to take dance classes.

It is from his experiments with setting up the dances and choreography for the men of Springfield College that Shawn created the first all-male dance company in America, Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers. Along with professional dancers such as Barton Mumaw and Jack Cole, he recruited college athletes, including Wilbur McCormick (Springfield College Class of 1934), to join his company. One of the first performances of these dancers was presented by Springfield College on March 11, 1933. Shortly after this performance, they gave a series of performances at the Boston Repertory Theater during the week of March 20th 1933. Among the dancers who performed in Boston was a group of Springfield College students (other than Wilbur McCormick), including Clyde Shotzbarger (Class of 1933), Lyle Welser (Class of 1933), Clayton Shay (Class of 1933, Peter Pretka (Class of 1934), John Seeley (Class of 1934), and Francis Luoma (Class of 1935). All the men performed on the Tuesday Evening Performance, performing “Osage-Pawnee Dance of Greeting” and “Calvary.” In 1936, in recognition of Shawn’s outstanding achievements in dance, Springfield College bestowed upon him an honorary Master’s degree in Humanics.

In 1950, a graduate program in dance education was established as a joint venture between Springfield College and Jacob’s Pillow. This was largely through the initiative and efforts of Ted Shawn and Dr. Charles “Chic” Weckwerth, Director of Recreation at Springfield College. The graduate program in dance, as part of the physical education curriculum for men and women, combined academic work at Springfield College with intensive dance study in the summertime at Jacob’s Pillow “University of the Dance.” The program flourished for more than twenty years.

In addition this relationship, several Springfield College faculty and administrators served on the Board of Directors of Jacob’s Pillow from 1950-1972. Foremost amongst them was a 1955 graduate of the joint program, Eugenie Dozier. She served as Dean and Registrar of the Jacob’s Pillow dance program and the liaison between Springfield College and Jacob’s Pillow from 1960 to 1970.

Even after Shawn’s death in 1972, the original courses, Fundamentals of Rhythm and Folk Dance that Shawn had introduced back in the 1932-1933 school year continued to be taught at Springfield College. In fact, Shawn’s dance education book, Sixteen Basic Themes, was the source for dance and rhythm education at the college for decades. In addition, Cynthia Nazzaro, who came to Springfield College in 1990 to develop and direct a dance program within a newly created Department of Visual and Performing Arts, has commissioned and produced several reconstructions of works by Ted Shawn. This has included one of Shawn’s most famous solos, Gnossienne, and, in 2007-08, nine dance students from the college worked with Paul Dennis and did a reconstruction all four sections of Labor Symphony and at the Pillow.

- Written by Jeffrey Monseau, February 17, 2016 (based largely on work and writing done by Cynthia Nazzaro)

Resources used:

General History, MS520 – Ted Shawn Papers, Series 1, Box 1, Folder 1

History of the Dance, written by Cynthia Nazzaro, September 4, 2012, MS520 – Ted Shawn Papers, Series 1, Box 1, Folder 1

Jacob’s Pillow Website, accessed February 17, 2016