From the Sacred Dance Guild’s Newsletter Winter 1978, Volume XV, No 2
“Calling” from Lotus Light by Ruth St. Denis
The Gods have meant
That I should dance,
And by the Gods
I will!
For in some mystic hour
I shall move to unheard rhythms
Of the cosmic orchestra of heaven,
And you will know the language
Of my wordless songs,
And will come to me
For that is why I dance.
“Dance Divine” from Lotus Light
We are free of time and space
The gestures
Of our right and left hands
In the meetings and partings
Of our rhythms
Are the fulfillment of our completed selves
In the endless avowal
Of that selfhood which is divine
We use our translucent bodies
In a new language
To express the glory of our love
From the Sacred Dance Guild’s Newsletter Spring 1974, Volume XVI, No. 3
Praise Him With the Timbrel and Dance; Praise Him With Stringed Instruments and Organs by Vija Vetra
These Psalms from the Old Testament show that dance as worship was known to the Hebrews of long ago. Likewise the Ancient Egyptians, the Aztecs, the Mayas, the Greeks and other peoples with a highly developed cultural life made great use of the dance in their ceremonies and divine worship. The ancient temples of India, the sacred place of the Hindu religion were once, and to some extent still are, the scene of devotional dance-offerings. In India, the dance was also used as a “visual aid” and as a means of teaching people the deeper meaning of religion through allegorical stories drawn from the Hindu mythology.
From the Sacred Dance Guild Journal Volume 25, Number 3, 1989
Fifty-Year Backward Look by Forest Winston Coggan
The influence of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn can’t be overemphasized. So many of the “pioneers” were touched by their dedication, broad study and wide spread performance. I’m sure that Mary Jane Wolbers would agree. How fortunate we were to have them as “mother and father.” Although I had created small compositions of religious nature for churches, the first sizeable challenge came in 1947 when, with the orchestra under the baton of Alexander Schuster and dancers under my direction, we staged Bernstein’s “Jeremiah Symphony” at MSU auditorium. Leonard Bernstein had worked long and hard on this music, so close to his heart at the beginning of his career and was glad to have someone else share his inspiration.
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