The World of 1929

As I've mentioned, in 1929 Ted Shawn began his career as company Artistic Director when he created Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers. Everyone knows the big influence that Ruth St. Dennis had on him (and he had on her), but there were other things happening in the world during this time. Other things that most likely affected the art Ted Shawn was creating.

I looked for a long time for direct world events that Ted Shawn used as inspirations for dances, but I could not find any specific examples. So instead, I looked up 1929 and found some of these extremely important events.

Here is just a short list of events that could have influenced the works of Ted Shawn

• The Stock Market Crash
• The 1st Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles
• The Museum of Modern Art opened in New York City
• The St. Valentines Day Massacre took place in Chicago, IL
• Pope Pius XI emerges from the Vatican ending a nearly 60 years of "self-imprisonment"
• Pablo Picasso painted two abstract cubist works
• Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte were painting works as well

It's hard to saw what world events were influencing Ted Shawn, but I can speak from experience, It is hard to ignore what is happening in the world around you. The world around Ted Shawn was extremely exciting and constantly changing and I am sure his work was as well.