Ted Shawn, byname of Edwin Myers Shawn, (born October 21, 1891, Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.—died January 9, 1972, Orlando, Florida), innovative American modern dancer and cofounder of the Denishawn school and company.

A former divinity student, Shawn was introduced to dance as therapy after an illness. Soon after beginning his dance career, he met and married Ruth St. Denis in 1914; together they founded Denishawn. Shawn taught and promoted many different ethnic and theatrical styles of dance and, with St. Denis, choreographed the Denishawn company’s entire repertoire. He and St. Denis ended both their marital and their professional association in 1931, though they never divorced. From 1933 to 1940 he built a group of male dancers, for whom he choreographed numerous dances, including Labor Symphony, Olympiad, and Kinetic Molpai. By drawing from such sources as labourers’ movements, dances of American Indians, and U.S. folk and popular dance, he was able to create a vigorous, masculine dance technique that greatly enhanced the attraction of dance as a career for men.

In 1933 he founded Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival near Lee, Massachusetts, as a summer residence and theatre for his dancers. After the group’s dissolution, Shawn developed Jacob’s Pillow into an internationally important dance centre. Although his own choreography was generally nonballetic, he believed that dance as a whole is composed of many valid styles and so presented ballet as well as modern and ethnic dancers at Jacob’s Pillow. Shawn continued to make occasional appearances as a dancer, reviving his solos, choreographing new ones, and performing in works created for him by Myra Kinch, notably Sundered Majesty (1954), based on Shakespeare’s King Lear. He also lectured extensively and wrote several books. A biography, Father of American Dance, by Walter Terry was published in 1976.

Source : Encyclopaedia Britannica

Author, filmmaker and video artist Charles Picq (1952-2012) entered working life in the 70s through theatre and photography. A- fter resuming his studies (Maîtrise de Linguistique - Lyon ii, Maîtrise des sciences et Techniques de la Communication - grenoble iii), he then focused on video, first in the field of fine arts at the espace Lyonnais d'art Contemporain (ELAC) and with the group « Frigo », and then in dance.
   On creation of the Maison de la Danse in Lyon in 1980, he was asked to undertake a video documentation project that he has continued ever since. During the ‘80s, a decade marked in France by the explosion of contemporary dance and the development of video, he met numerous artists such as andy Degroat, Dominique Bagouet, Carolyn Carlson, régine Chopinot, susanne Linke, Joëlle Bouvier and regis Obadia, Michel Kelemenis. He worked in the creative field with installations and on-stage video, as well as in television with recorded shows, entertainment and documentaries.

His work with Dominique Bagouet (80-90) was a unique encounter. He documents his creativity, assisting with Le Crawl de Lucien and co-directing with his films Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux and 10 anges. in the 90s he became director of video development for the Maison de la Danse and worked, with the support of guy Darmet and his team, in the growing space of theatre video through several initiatives:
       - He founded a video library of dance films with free public access. This was a first for France. Continuing the video documentation of theatre performances, he organised their management and storage.
       - He promoted the creation of a video-bar and projection room, both dedicated to welcoming school pupils.
       - He started «présentations de saisons» in pictures.
       - He oversaw the DVD publication of Le tour du monde en 80 danses, a pocket video library produced by the Maison de la Danse for the educational sector.

       - He launched the series “scènes d'écran” for television and online. He undertook the video library's digital conversion and created Numeridanse.

His main documentaries are: enchaînement, Planète Bagouet, Montpellier le saut de l'ange, Carolyn Carlson, a woman of many faces, grand ecart, Mama africa, C'est pas facile, Lyon, le pas de deux d'une ville, Le Défilé, Un rêve de cirque.

He has also produced theatre films: Song, Vu d'ici (Carolyn Carlson), Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux, 10 anges, Necesito and So schnell, (Dominique Bagouet), Im bade wannen, Flut and Wandelung (Susanne Linke), Le Cabaret Latin (Karine Saporta), La danse du temps (Régine Chopinot), Nuit Blanche (Abou Lagraa), Le Témoin (Claude Brumachon), Corps est graphique (Käfig), Seule et WMD (Françoise et Dominique Dupuy), La Veillée des abysses (James Thiérrée), Agwa (Mourad Merzouki), Fuenteovejuna (Antonio Gades), Blue Lady revistied (Carolyn Carlson).

Source: Maison de la Danse de Lyon