98. THE YOGI
June 6, 2026
Noteworthy footnote:
Ruth St. Denis, a student of Vivekananda's disciple Swami Paramananda, created and performed pieces such as “The Yogi,” which included choreographed yoga poses and passages from the Bhagavad Gita. In her autobiography, St. Denis describes meditating before performances: she would “for a brief thirty minutes realize [her] contact with the one Mind” and, through an inner discipline, dissolve lingering irritations. Getting in touch with the “impersonal spirit” led her to feel that “by the time [she] had left to go on the stage [she] was truly the priestess in the temple.” Ruth St. Denis, Ruth St. Denis, an Unfinished Life: An Autobiography (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1939), 87.
(Source: Saumaa, Hiie. 2016. “Alys Bentley’s Dance Impulse, Embodied Learning, and the Dancing Mind.” Dance Chronicle 39 (3): 249–78. Image: “Ruth St. Denis in The Yogi.” Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library. The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1906.)
Related: IN TUNE, DANCE TO BELONG, DANCE LESSONS, STUDIO 61, ROOT-AND-FLOWER, DEMONSTRATION, RODEO, THE “TEMPLE”