Ruby Ginner
{{Short description|British dancer and dance educator (1886–1978)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ruby Ginner
| image = Ruby Ginner by Christina Broom in 1912 (cropped).jpg
| alt =
| caption = at the Women's Freedom League in 1912 (by Christina Broom)
| other_names = Ruby Ginner Dyer (after marriage)
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1886|5|8|df=y}}
| birth_place = Cannes, France
| death_date = {{death date and age|1978|2|13|1886|5|8|df=y}}
| death_place = Newbury, Berkshire, UK
| nationality = British
| occupation = Dancer, dance educator
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| relatives = Charles Ginner (brother)
}}
Ruby Ginner (8 May 1886 – 13 February 1978), later Ruby Ginner Dyer, was a British dancer and dance educator, born in France. She founded a dance school, and the Association of Teachers of the Revived Greek Dance.
Early life
Ruby Mary Adeline Ginner was born in Cannes, and moved to England at age 11. Her father Isaac Benjamin Ginner was a doctor.{{Cite book|last=Hartley|first=Cathy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pDtEe4FKolUC&q=Ruby+Ginner&pg=PA184|title=A Historical Dictionary of British Women|date=2003|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-1-85743-228-2|page=184|language=en}} Her mother Lydia Adeline Wightman was born in Scotland. Her older brother Charles Ginner became a noted painter.{{Cite ODNB|id=33410|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-33410|title=Ginner, (Isaac) Charles (1878–1952), painter|last=Baron|first=Wendy|date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-04-07}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/charles-ginner-1175|title=Charles Ginner 1878–1952|website=Tate|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-04-07}} She trained in ballet, and studied Greek dance.{{Cite web|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095853709|title=Ruby Ginner|website=The Oxford Dictionary of Dance|language=en|access-date=2020-04-07}}
Career
File:RubyGinnerAdvertisement1918.png
Ginner was principal dancer with the Beecham Opera Company from 1910 to 1912, then led a group of dancers performing her interpretation of Greek dance from 1913. She and her dance troupe performed at a fund raiser for the British Red Cross Society in 1915.{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/729115/index.html|title=Topical Budget 202-2: Grecian Dances at Ranelagh (1915)|website=BFI Screenonline|access-date=2020-04-07}} She danced on the London stage, in An Autumn Idyll (1912),{{Cite news|last=G.|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48212036/the-cicada-at-the-savoy-theatreg/|title='The Cicada' at the Savoy Theatre|date=1912-06-26|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-04-07|pages=5|via=Newspapers.com}} Et pois bonsoir (1920), The Trojan Women (1920), Medea (1920), and L'enfant prodigue (1929).{{Cite book|last=Wearing|first=J. P.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5vFEAwAAQBAJ&q=Ruby+Ginner&pg=PA643|title=The London Stage 1920–1929: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel|year=2014|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8108-9302-3|pages=14, 17, 643|language=en}}
Ginner founded the Ruby Ginner School of Dance in London during World War I.{{Cite web|url=https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/ginner-ruby-1886-1978|title=Ginner, Ruby (1886–1978)|last=Carter|first=Alexandra|date=2016|website=Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism|language=en|access-date=2020-04-07}} She later partnered with mime Irene Mawer, and the school was known as the Ginner-Mawer School of Dance and Drama.{{Cite book|last1=Carter|first1=A.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LiOBDAAAQBAJ&q=Ruby+Ginner&pg=PA21|title=Dancing Naturally: Nature, Neo-Classicism and Modernity in Early Twentieth-Century Dance|last2=Fensham|first2=R.|year=2011|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-230-35448-7|pages=21|language=en}} Among her students was Australian health advocate Thea Stanley Hughes, Canadian dancer Gweneth Lloyd,{{Cite web|url=http://www.artsalive.ca/en/dan/meet/bios/artistDetail.asp?artistID=73|title=Meet the Artists: Gweneth Lloyd|website=ArtsAlive|access-date=2020-04-07}} actress and dancer Irene Mulvany-Gray{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48243920/enrolment-starts-in-play-workshop/|title=Enrolment Starts in Play Workshop|date=1944-11-07|work=The Gazette|access-date=2020-04-08|pages=4|via=Newspapers.com}} (and her sister Hilda Mulvany-Gray){{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48211108/mimetic-dancing-releases-feeling/|title=Mimetic Dancing Releases Feeling|date=1936-04-27|work=The Gazette|access-date=2020-04-07|pages=8|via=Newspapers.com}} and dance educator Beatrice "Bice" Bellairs.[https://www.surrey.ac.uk/sites/default/files/PioneerWomen_ProjectFinalReport_0.pdf "Pioneer Women: early British modern dancers"] National Resource Centre for Dance (2008-2010). She taught movement to actors at Constance Benson's studio, including a young John Gielgud.{{Cite book|last=Croall|first=Jonathan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qy-M1O53kdYC&q=Ruby+Ginner&pg=PT41|title=John Gielgud: Matinee Idol to Movie Star|year=2011|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-4081-3107-7|language=en}}
In 1923, Ginner founded the Association of Teachers of the Revived Greek Dance; the organization became the Greek Dance Association,{{Cite news|last=Khan|first=Naseem|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/48211847/the-grecian-gambolnaseem-khan/|title=The Grecian Gambol|date=1967-06-09|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-04-07|pages=10|via=Newspapers.com}} and in 1951 joined the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing.{{Cite journal|last=Mitchell-Smith|first=Susan|date=October 2001|title=Classical Greek Dance Centre (Ruby Ginner Method)|journal=Dance Research|language=en|volume=19|issue=2|pages=127|doi=10.3366/1290979|issn=0264-2875}} She was decorated for her services with the Red Cross in Greece during World War II.
Books by Ginner included The Revived Greek Dance: Its Art and Technique (1930){{Cite book|last=Ginner|first=Ruby|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8758717|title=The revived Greek dance : its art and technique|date=1933|publisher=London : Methuen & co., ltd|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Ginner|first=Ruby|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z_SxOwAACAAJ|title=The Revived Greek Dance: Its Art and Technique|date=1944|publisher=Methuen|language=en}} and Gateway to Dance (1960).{{Cite web|url=http://revival.orchesis-portal.org/index.php/ruby-ginner|title=Ruby Ginner|website=Ancient Greek Dance Revival|access-date=2020-04-07}} Ginner offered Greek dance as a healthier, more natural way of expressive movementLey, Graham. "Modern Visions of Greek Tragic Dancing" Theatre Journal 55(3)(October 2003): 467–480. {{ProQuest|}} than more modern dance traditions:
The natural physical rhythms of mankind are being slowly crushed out of existence. In many of the arts and crafts, in the daily necessities of life, in labour, and in travel, the free, glorious, and rhythmic movement of the body has given place to the action of the machine.{{Cite book|last=Evans|first=Mark|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vEKTAgAAQBAJ&q=Ruby+Ginner&pg=PA47|title=Movement Training for the Modern Actor|year=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-89294-4|page=47|language=en}}
Personal life
Ruby Ginner married Alexander Dyer. They had a home called St Corentin, in Boscastle, Cornwall, where her brother painted landscapes from 1915 to 1947.{{Cite book|last1=Jenkins|first1=David Fraser|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/camden-town-group/charles-ginner-hartland-point-from-boscastle-r1139004|title=Hartland Point from Boscastle 1941 by Charles Ginner|last2=Perry|first2=Roy|last3=Morgan|first3=Sarah|year=2012|publisher=Tate|isbn=978-1-84976-385-1|language=en}} Ginner died in 1978, aged 91 years, at a nursing home in Newbury. Her papers, including photographs and films, are in the National Resource Centre for Dance at the University of Surrey.{{Cite journal|last=Carter|first=Alexandra |date=2010|title=Archives of the Dance (22): Pioneer Women – Early British Modern Dancers (The National Resource Centre for Dance, University of Surrey)|journal=Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research|volume=28|issue=1|pages=90–103|doi=10.3366/drs.2010.0005|jstor=40664451|issn=0264-2875|url=https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/4717/1/Carter-archives_of_the_dance.pdf}} The Ruby Ginner Awards are presented annually by the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing.{{Cite web|url=https://www.istd.org/news/istd-news/ruby-ginner-awards-2019/|title=Ruby Ginner Awards 2019|website=Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing|access-date=2020-04-07}}
References
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External links
- Christina Broom (1912), [https://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/1005052/christina-broom-ruby-ginner-at-the-womens-freedom-league-international-suffrage "Ruby Ginner at the Women's Freedom League International Suffrage"] in the Museum of London.
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Category:Dance education in the United Kingdom