Ted Shawn

Ted Shawn born 21 October 1891 (d. 1972)

Ted Shawn, originally Edwin Myers Shawn, was one of the first notable male pioneers of American modern dance. Along with creating Denishawn with former wife Ruth St Denis he was also responsible for the creation of the all-male company Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers. With his innovative ideas of masculine movement he was one of the most influential choreographers and dancers of his day. He was also the founder and creator of Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts.

Ted Shawn was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Originally intending to become a minister of religion, he attended the University of Denver. There he caught diphtheria, which led him to take up dance in 1910 to regain his muscle strength. Shawn's dancing was discouraged by the University, which still had a Methodist affiliation, and was the reason for his expulsion the following year.

Shawn did not realise his true potential as an artist until marrying Ruth St Denis in 1914. St Denis served not only as partner but an extremely valuable creative outlet to Shawn. Soon after their marriage the couple opened the first Denishawn School in Los Angeles, California, where they were able to choreograph and stage many of their famous vaudeville pieces. The following year Shawn launched a cross-country tour with his dance partner, Norma Gould, and their Interpretive Dancers. The school and company went on to produce such influential dancers as Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman.

Together, Shawn and Ruth St Denis established the principle of Music Visualisation in modern dance — a concept that called for movement equivalents to the timbres, dynamics, and structural shapes of music in addition to its rhythmic base. In 1916 and 1917 Shawn choreographed the first of these, Inventions and Fugues to Bach, as classroom exercises. Soon after, St Denis presented works using music visualisation techniques to the public.

Although Denishawn came to an end in 1929 due to hard times both in Shawn’s and St Denis’ marriage as well as the economy, Shawn’s second dance group Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers (1929-1940) were soon to follow in his dancing career. The new all-male company was based out of Massachusetts near his then home of Lee. In creating this company Shawn was hoping to make America become more aware, and accept the importance and dedication of the male dancer. It was with this new company that Shawn produced some of his most controversial and highly skilled choreography to date. With works such as Ponca Indian Dance, Sinhalse Devil Dance, Maori War Haka, Hopi Indian Eagle Dance, and Dyak Spear Dances he was able to showcase performances that all stressed male body movement. His love for the relationships created by the men in his dances soon translated into love between him and one of his company members Barton Mumaw which lasted from 1931-1948. He had another partner following Mumaw, John Christian with whom he spent his life from 1949 until his death in 1972.

Shawn and his Men Dancers

 With this new company came the creation of Jacob's Pillow, a dance school, retreat, and theatre. Shawn and his men used this space as a place to hold teas as well as a place to perform. These teas soon transformed into the festival that is so widely known to this day, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Shawn also used this new space to develop his choreography and teach. Jacob’s Pillow has since become one of the largest and most respected dance festivals, with performances and guests from some of the most prominent companies in the world. Having a place where anybody could come and show their work without restrictions or bias is something that Shawn fought for and wanted to share with others.

Shawn became a major impresario, bringing dance to mainstream America through the theatre and school at Jacob's Pillow. To promote his principle of the importance and universality of dance, Shawn introduced countless foreign companies to American audiences, provided opportunities for promising young artists and trained countless students in a full range of dance styles. Shawn orchestrated premieres by both the established and emerging talents of his day including Agnes de Mille, Anton Dolin, Pearl Lang, Merce Cunningham, Anna Sokolow, Alvin Ailey, and Robert Joffrey.

Shawn made his last appearance on stage in the Ted Shawn Theatre at Jacob’s Pillow in his performance of Siddhas of the Upper Air where he reunited with St Denis. Shawn and St Denis danced on their 50th anniversary at the Casino in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Saratoga Springs is now the home of the National Museum of Dance, the world's only museum dedicated to professional dance. Shawn was inducted into the museum's C V Whitney Hall of Fame in 1987. Shawn was still teaching classes at Jacob’s Pillow just months before his death at the age of 80.

In 1965 Shawn was a Heritage Award recipient of the National Dance Association.

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde born 16 October 1854 (d. 1900)

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, short story writer and Freemason. Known for his barbed and clever wit, he was one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London, and one of the greatest celebrities of his day. As the result of a famous trial, he suffered a dramatic downfall and was imprisoned after being convicted of 'gross indecency' for homosexual acts.

Though Wilde's sexual orientation has variously been considered bisexual, homosexual, and pederastic, Wilde himself felt he belonged to a culture of male love inspired by the Greek pederastic tradition. His most significant sexual relationships appear to have been (in chronological order) with (perhaps) Frank Miles, Constance Lloyd (Wilde's wife), Robert Baldwin Ross, and Lord Alfred Douglas. Wilde also had numerous sexual encounters with working-class male youths, who were often rent boys.

Biographers generally believe Wilde was introduced to homosexuality in 1885 (the year after his wedding) by the 17-year-old Robert Baldwin Ross. Neil McKenna's biography The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde (2003) theorises that Wilde was aware of his homosexuality much earlier, from the moment of his first kiss with another boy at the age of 16. According to McKenna, after arriving at Oxford in 1874, Wilde tentatively explored his sexuality, discovering that he could feel passionate romantic love for 'fair, slim' choirboys, but was more sexually drawn towards swarthy young rough trade.

By the late 1870s, Wilde was already preoccupied with the philosophy of same-sex love, and had befriended a group of Uranian poets and homosexual law reformers. Wilde also met Walt Whitman in America in 1881, writing to a friend that there was 'no doubt' about the great American poet's sexual orientation — 'I have the kiss of Walt Whitman still on my lips,' he boasted. He even lived with the society painter Frank Miles, who was a few years his senior and may have been his lover. However, writes McKenna, he was unhappy with the direction of his sexual and romantic desires, and, hoping that marriage would cure him, he married Constance Lloyd in 1884.

After meeting and falling in love with Lord Alfred Douglas, 'Bosie', in 1891, Wilde and his lover embraced an hedonistic life style, and for a few years they lived together more or less openly in a number of locations. Wilde and some within his upper-class social group also began to speak about homosexual law reform, and their commitment to 'The Cause' was formalised by the founding of a highly secretive organisation called the Order of Chaeronea, of which Wilde was a member.

Bosie's father, the Marquess of Queensberry, became increasingly enraged at his son's involvement with Wilde. He confronted the two publicly several times, and each time Wilde was able to mollify the Marquess. Eventually, the Marquess planned to interrupt the opening night of The Importance of Being Earnest with an insulting delivery of vegetables, but somebody tipped Wilde off and he was barred from entering the theatre.

On February 18, 1895, the Marquess left a calling card at one of Wilde's clubs, the Albemarle. On the back of the card he wrote 'For Oscar Wilde posing as a Somdomite' (a misspelling of 'Sodomite').

Although Wilde's friends advised him to ignore the insult, Lord Alfred later admitted that he egged Wilde on to charge Queensberry with criminal libel. Queensberry was arrested, and in April 1895, the Crown took over the prosecution of the libel case against him. The trial lasted three days. The prosecuting counsel, Edward Clarke, was unaware that Wilde had had liaisons and romantic relationships with other males. Clarke asked Wilde directly whether there was any substance to Queensberry's accusations and Wilde denied that there was. Edward Carson, the barrister who defended Queensberry, hired investigators who were able to locate a number of youths with whom Wilde had been involved, either socially or sexually, such as the 16-year-old Walter Grainger and other newsboys and valets. Most damaging of all, among them were a number of young men who had earned money through prostitution, including one of the main witnesses, Charles Parker.

Wilde put on a tremendous display of drama in the first day of the trial, parrying Carson's cross-examination on the morals of his published works with witticisms and sarcasm, often breaking the courtroom up with laughter. However, on the second day, Carson's cross-examination was much more damaging: Wilde later admitted to perjuring himself with some of his answers. On the third day, Clarke recommended that Wilde withdraw the prosecution, and the case was dismissed. The authorities were unwilling to let matters rest.

Based on the evidence acquired by Queensberry and Carson, Wilde was arrested on April 6, 1895, at the Cadogan Hotel, London, and charged with 'committing acts of gross indecency with other male persons' under Section 11 of the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act. Despite pleas by friends to flee the country, Wilde chose to stay and martyr himself for his cause.

Two trials followed. The first trial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict. The next, and last, trial was presided over by Chief Justice Sir Alfred Wills. On May 25, 1895 Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years' hard labour. He was imprisoned first in Pentonville and then in Wandsworth prison in London, and finally transferred in November to Reading Prison.

Prison was harsh on Wilde's health and after he was released on May 19, 1897 he spent his last three years penniless, in self-imposed exile from society and artistic circles. After his release, he wrote the famous poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

Wilde spent his last days in the Hôtel d'Alsace, now known as L'Hôtel, in Paris.

Oscar Wilde died of cerebral meningitis on November 30, 1900.

Wilde is an iconic figure in modern popular culture, both as a wit and as an archetype of gay identity. His trial, imprisonment and death have made him a gay martyr and come to symbolise the inhumane attitudes and treatment with which society has confronted gay people - although it could be argued that his foolish decision to sue the Marquess of Queensberry and his own resulting trial drove an entire generation of increasingly confident homosexual men underground and set the course of gay liberation back by untold decades - but that we shall never know.

Stephen Gately 1976 - 2009

Stephen Gately 1976 - 2009

September Icon - Freddie Mercury 1946-1991