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

[Elissa White]

Dear Judith,

Thank you so much for letting us know about Ruthanna.  I, too, saw her
perform when I was a teenager.  At that point she was with Ballet Russes.
I always enjoyed her performances.

At one ADTA conference, Ruthanna and I were talking about dance and
it turned out that she knew my teachers in Chicago and we had a wonderful
conversation about our mutual "friends."

With regard to her feeling that dance therapy was veering away from our
heritage and thus her resigning from ADTA, it was an unfortunate situation.
I sincerely hope that her decision to resign  was not an omen about our
field.

I, too, will continue to remember Ruthanna and in particular, have these
found memories of her performances in Cakewalk, Gaite Parisienne and
other ballets.

Elissa White



On Sunday, January 7, 2007, at 07:40 PM, Judith Bunney wrote:

> 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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