[Adta] Ruthanna Boris 3/17/17 - 1/5/07

[Judith Bunney]

Dear ADTA Members,

It is with sadness that I must now inform you of the death of  Ruthanna Boris on Friday morning 1/5/07 at a hospice in CA, after a protracted illness.  She was a former ADTA member and would have been 90 on St. Patrick's day.   We spoke many times about her life and her journey and how she had hoped to finish several projects as she knew she was dying.   She said she was "curious" about her final day and not afraid.

Ruthanna was a student of the American School of Ballet in NYC from childhood.   Later, George Balanchine, "Mr. B" brought her into the New York City Ballet as a ballerina.   She also had danced with the Ballet Russe, touring Europe and the US by train.   There is a beautiful picture of her in the recent documentary film about the various troupes:  Ballets Russes.     

 Ruthanna met Marian Chace in the mid sixties and trained with her to become a dance therapist.   At ADTA conferences they would share past experiences as performers on tour which became a strong bond between them.   Marian introduced Ruthanna to me at about the same time at a Chestnut Lodge Symposium.  I enjoyed her lively colorful tales of people in the ballet world, whom I had seen on stage as a child and a teen.    I had actually watched her perfom in her ballet "Cakewalk".

Ruthanna Boris directed the dance program at the University of Washington in Seattle after her performing career and was active in ADTA.   She was co-chair of our first Seattle conference with Stephanie Katz, a co-editor of the American Journal of Dance Therapy, and was honored as one of the annual speakers of the Marian Chace Memorial Foundation.   After she retired from UWA, she settled in the San Francisco Bay Area.

We must also acknowledge that Ruthanna had very fierce opinions on subjects relating to her chosen fields:  dance therapy; dance therapy training; dance training itself; psychoanalysis; and lastly, the legacy of Marian Chace.    Always a tour de force, collaborators found it difficult to work with her.  She later resigned from ADTA for she felt the organization was drifting away from its heritage in dance.

Because of her strong personality as well as her achievements and contributions, I like many in the dance therapy and dance world mourn today.
I will miss her very much.

Judith Bunney
Santa Fe
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