La Meri (1899–1988)
La Meri (1899–1988)
American dancer, author, and instructor. Name variations: Russell Meriwether Hughes. Born Russell Meriwether Hughes in Louisville, KY, May 13, 1899; died Jan 1988 in San Antonio, TX; grew up in San Antonio, TX; educated at Texas Woman's University, Denton University, and Columbia University; studied ballet with Aaron Tomaroff and Ivan Tarasoff, and modern dance with Michio Ito, 1925; also studied dance in Mexico, South America, Spain, Africa, India, Ceylon, the Philippines, and Japan, 1926–39.
America's leading authority on ethnic dance, made professional debut with a Texas tour (1923); continued to tour world until advent of WWII (1939); returning to NY, helped found the School of Natya (May 1940) with Ruth St. Denis; 2 years later, combined Natya with her Ethnologic Dance Center, which offered study of dance from nations throughout world; toured while creating many ethnic dances, including El Amor Brujo, a Bharata Natyam interpretation of Swan Lake; books include Principles of the Dance Art (1933), Dance as an Art Form (1933), Gesture Language of the Hindu (1941), Spanish Dancing (1948) and The Basic Elements of Dance Competition (1965); also taught at Jacob's Pillow summer dance school.