In 1915 a pair of newlyweds formed a company that was to become instrumental in the formation of modern dance as a genre.  This odd pairing was to become infamous for performing in as little clothing as possible as much for their revolutionary dance styles.  Quite a trick in the early part of the twentieth century.

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To our own twenty first century eyes, of course, pictures like this seem fairly tame but at the time they were quite outrageous.  Society was still in the process of unburdening itself of the shackles of Victorian morality and this combination of bare flesh and sensuality would have been seen in many quarters as more than outrageous.  In fact, were it not for their ingenuity the couple may well have seen themselves in court on charges of promoting pornography.  Who were they and how did they get away with it?

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The eroticism of this 1915 shot of Ruth St Denis, almost one hundred years old, is still something that can be described as simply erotic.  Her head flung back in abandon, her clothes dripping wet, this foreshadows the glamour photography of the fifties.  However risqué it would have seemed in the time of Monroe, during the First World War this was as explicit as photography could get without being illegal.  St Denis was born in 1879 and the inspiration for her exotic dances came about, so legend has it, when she saw a picture of the Egyptian goddess Isis on a cigarette ad.  This eureka moment would lead to a lifetime of progressive work in the field of dance.  However, she would need a partner to get things done.

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Enter Ted Shawn, pictured above in 1917.  To say that he was an exhibitionist would be something of an understatement and throughout his professional career he would grasp any possible opportunity to get his kit off.  Born Edwin Myers Shawn in Kansas City in 1891 his original life plan was, ironically considering his future career, to become a minister.  From a man of the cloth to a man without in a single bound, it was illness that led Shawn to his own revelatory moment and his discovery of dance as his life long passion.  While at the University of Denver he suffered from diphtheria which at the time killed up to fifteen thousand people a year in the USA.  To help rebuild his muscles after his long illness he took to dance.  And never really looked back.