Background
Sherman was born in Beloit, Wisconsin on June 14, 1908 to Horace Humphrey Sherman, an advertising writer, and Florentine Saint Clair, an opera singer.
(The 'Denis' was Ruth St. Denis, the 'Shawn' was Ted Shawn...)
The 'Denis' was Ruth St. Denis, the 'Shawn' was Ted Shawn, 'Denishawn' - the dance school and concert company they formed in the early 20s - was, quite simply, the birthplace of modern dance. With 'Denishawn: The Enduring Influence' Jane Sherman shows that this essentially American art form originated with this enterprising couple. Their immediate artistic offspring were Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman - the 'Big Three' of modern dance. Nurtured by the technical training, theatrical seasoning, and artistic philosophy of Denishawn, Graham, Humphrey, and Weidman firmly established modern dance during the 40s and 50s. By the end of the 50s, two dozen new companies traced their artistic lineage to the 'Big Three'. Until the 70s, however, the seminal influence of Denishawn was overshadowed by the more famous and vociferous second generation. 'Denishawn: The Enduring Influence' makes clear the debt of American modern dance to the dynamic partnership of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. Herself a former member of the Denishawn Company, Jane Sherman tells a fascinating story - of life on the road, where dance pieces could be sandwiched between animal acts and comedy routines, of a pioneering Oriental tour, of the systematic professional discipline imposed by Shawn and 'Miss Ruth'. Combining personal engagement with an objective assessment of the Denishawn achievement, Jane Sherman revitalizes an integral aspect of the American dance heritage.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805796029/?tag=2022091-20
(A book written by Jane Sherman, now 95 years old, comment...)
A book written by Jane Sherman, now 95 years old, commenting on her life in its later years. Jane Sherman danced with Ruth St. Denis-Ted Shawn Company on Far East and US tours. She was a member of the original Humphrey-Weidman Company, and then appeared in Broadway musicals and as a member of the Radio City Music Hall Rackettes. Ms. Sherman was a writer and the re-creator of St. Denis, Shawn and Humphrey works for the Denishawn Repertory Dancers, which she co-founded, the Martha Graham Company, the Vanaver Caravan, and others for performances in New York City, the Kennedy Center, Jacob's Pillow, the 1990 Biennnale de la Danse Americaine, Lyons, France, and elsewhere around the world.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0974513008/?tag=2022091-20
(Barton Mumaw, a soloist in Ted Shawn's Men Dancers Compan...)
Barton Mumaw, a soloist in Ted Shawn's Men Dancers Company (1933 - 40), participated with his mentor in Shawn's lifelong struggle to win respectability for male dancers within American culture. In this "as told to" autobiography, Mumaw relates dramatic stories of the company's groundbreaking cross-country tours, of their building Jacob's Pillow from pre-Revolutionary hardscrabble to preeminent dance festival, and tells for the first time of his intimate relationship with dance pioneer Ted Shawn. This is revealed through details of their lives together and apart, descriptions of their dances, and a stunning selection of rare photographs. This exceptional memoir, first published in 1986, will engage the general reader and is bound to attract scholars who seek to conjoin the many current works in gay and lesbian studies with today's equally numerous critical works in dance.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0819564532/?tag=2022091-20
Sherman was born in Beloit, Wisconsin on June 14, 1908 to Horace Humphrey Sherman, an advertising writer, and Florentine Saint Clair, an opera singer.
Graduate, Newtown High School, Elmhurst, New York, 1925.
She was a former member and authority of Denishawn, the eclectic company, founded by Ruth Saint Denis and Ted Shawn in 1915. She performed with companies ranging from modern-dance groups to the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes. The family moved to New York City in 1921, where Jane began studying dancing, after she saw a Saint Denis program that included "Brahms Waltz and Liebesträume", a solo that inspired her to study at the New York Denishawn School.
Dancing
She also appeared in Broadway revues and was a Rockette in 1934 and 1935.
Editing
After her dance career ended, she became a fiction editor at Seventeen magazine in the 1940s. On March 16, 2010, Sherman died at the age of 101.
(Barton Mumaw, a soloist in Ted Shawn's Men Dancers Compan...)
(A book written by Jane Sherman, now 95 years old, comment...)
(The 'Denis' was Ruth St. Denis, the 'Shawn' was Ted Shawn...)
(Book by Sherman, Jane)
From 1927 to 1928, she joined the Ziegfeld Follies and toured with the troupe, and later returned to modern dance as a member of the Humphrey-Weidman Company in 1928.
Married Ned Lehac, February 8, 1940 (deceased).