Barton Mumaw, Dancer: From Denishawn to Jacob's Pillow and Beyond

In recent months I have become obsessed with Denishawn and have been reading everything I can find that is related strongly to it. BARTON MUMAW, DANCER by Mumaw and Jane Sherman is wonderful. It tells the life of a talented man who was a true artist with an intellect and a heart full of love. He fell in love with music and dancing as a Pennsylvania Dutch boy growing up in Florida. As a youth in New York to study dance he meets and ultimately becomes the protege and paramour of the famed Ted Shawn. This is a very personal story, told frankly, as it traces growth of their relationship both professionally and emotionally. Mumaw becomes the principal dancer of Ted Shawn and His Men Dancers who barnstormed the country in the depression-ridden 1930s. The creation and survival of this company forms the real creative heart of this story and it is a very exciting one as it tells of male camaraderie among artists, who dance together, run a farm together and build a school together. After the breakup of the company due to the impending World War II, Mumaw joins the army and is shipped to Europe to fight. He survives and is truly a grown man when the war is over. He knows he must achieve independence from Shawn as an artist and as a man. Then the story's second part takes over with further amours and a new career as a Broadway dancer. This is the story of an artist's survival. Mumaw, with Sherman's help, has come up with a beautiful book. There's an intelligent, literary sensibility behind this book that informs everything Mumaw writes. This is a great book on a lot of levels. Mumaw may still be alive. I hope so. I want his book to have a long life, as it truly deserves to be known as a classic dancer's autobiography. Five stars.

I had the pleasure of a casual acquaintanceship with Mumaw in New York in the 40' and 50's. Always enticing, the narrative is impeccable, and the story itself one well worth telling. The prime student and then lover of Ted Shawn, Mumaw was enriched by the pairing, and when later in life after he had cut the umbilical chord with Shawn, though devastated by Shawn's treacherous behavior, could never bring himself to bring an end to the friendship.