It was a perfect plunge into the chaos of the American Century. Turn-of-the-century America took Europe’s stodgy traditions in art, poetry, music, writing and dance and turned them on their dainty ears. From New York to L.A., being creative virtually meant breaking all the rules, a coda for a generation intent on exploring all the senses long dulled by Old World ways.  And now, after 14 years of painstaking work, a piece of that expressive Americana is properly catalogued within FSU’s Department of Dance. More than 400 dance costumes and zany accessories from what amounts to America’s artistic nursery have been carefully sorted, identified, labeled and numbered--a new treasure for dance researchers and cultural history buffs alike.

"A study of costumes is as germane to the study of dance history as is the preservation of paintings, sculptures, and musical instruments to their respective fields," says the collection’s curator Dr. Tricia Henry Young.
 
Purple chiffon tunics, and a deep-blue man’s leotard are part of the collection that belonged to the famous Denishawn Dance Company and Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers. Founded in Los Angeles in 1915, the Denishawn school and dance company was active through 1931. It was the first undertaking of its kind in the country, says Young. As such, the collection represents a rare glimpse into the nascent days of America’s creative revolution, which, along with World War I, ushered in a new social consciousness.
 
While the public was learning to dance the Charleston, and Louis Armstrong perfected the musical solo, ballet choreographers were searching to find some form of expression of what it meant to be an American.

"The Denishawn Dance Company was the forerunner of modern American dance," says Young. "Modern dance had everything to do with women’s rights and dress reform."

The dance world was astounded when Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn’s wife (hence the name Denishawn), appeared in 1910 as Isis on a throne in her Egyptian Ballet, wearing an orange, accordion-pleated silk gown. The gown, along with the other theatrical costumes and accessories from later decades, is part of the FSU collection.

Pam Killinger, FSU dance alumnus and a choreographer at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT, donated the artifacts to the university in 1983. The tedious process of cataloguing and researching their original uses was completed last year by Young, associate professor of dance history and theory. The resulting catalogue, Performing Arts Resources, Vol. 20, is subtitled After the Dance: Documents of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn (Theatre Library Association, New York, 1996).

Killinger spotted the collection at an auction. Recognizing the articles as part of the Denishawn Dance Company, and aware of the Denishawn school’s significance to the dance world, she outbid the only other bidder--the auctioneer.

"I was afraid that the collection would be sold off piece by piece...perhaps to people who just wanted an interesting trinket to place on a mantelpiece," she says. Besides dancewear, the collection includes jewelry, wigs, hats, headdresses, masks, shoes, and assorted props for stage, backstage, rehearsal, studio classes and street clothes.

Performing arts historians prize the FSU collection for its research opportunities. "Ruth St. Denis and her husband Ted Shawn made dance in the United States a respectable artistic endeavor. Dance became a decent profession for men after the couple founded Denishawn dance school in 1915," Young says.

Now that the chore of cataloguing is finished, Young says funding is sorely needed to preserve the highly perishable items in a permanent repository at FSU.