La Meri (b. 1898)

America's leading authority on ethnic dance. Name variations: Russell Meriwether Hughes. Born Russell Meriwether Hughes in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1898; educated at Texas Woman's University, Denton University, and Columbia University; studied ballet with local teachers in San Antonio, 1913–20, Hawaii, 1917, Barcelona, 1922; studied ballet with Aaron Tomaroff and Ivan Tarasoff; studied modern dance with Michio Ito, 1925; also studied dance in Mexico, South America, Spain, Africa, India, Ceylon, the Philippines, and Japan, 1926–39.

La Meri, the stage name of Russell Meriwether Hughes, made her professional debut with a Texas tour in 1923. She continued to tour throughout the world until the advent of World War II in 1939. Returning to New York, she helped found the School of Natya in May 1940 with Ruth St. Denis . In two years' time, the school melded with the Ethnologic Dance Center, also founded by La Meri, which offered in its prospectus the study of dance from nations throughout the world; the school continued until 1956. Meanwhile, La Meri toured while creating many ethnic dances, including El Amor Brujo, a Bharata Natyam interpretation of Swan Lake. Her 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). Often a guest lecturer at colleges and universities, La Meri also taught at Jacob's Pillow summer dance school. The New York Public Library dance division contains the La Meri Collection, a wealth of photos and clippings from her extensive career.