Edna Guy - Early Years

Early Years

Guy’a parents lived a meager existence but still encouraged their only child’s interest in dance, funding her training to the best of their ability. After seeing Ruth St. Denis perform, Guy became smitten with her and sent her a note backstage which she signed “Edna Guy, colored girl”. St. Denis mentions in her autobiography “An Unfinished life” that she was touched by Guys note; the very note which was the impetus for a continuous wave of correspondence between the two. Guy lionized St. Denish, calling her “utterly beautiful” in one of the poems she later wrote for her and yearned to dance at Denishawn, the school set up by St. Denis and her husband Ted Shawn but St. Denis deemed her unready. Still, St. Denis was highly maternalistic in her correspondence with Guy which lasted between 1923 and 1940 . In fact, St Denis herself wrote “from that day until now I have become her white mama” . This statement is especially significant because Guy’s mother died in 1920 . With few options available in concert dance for people of her race, Guy auditioned as a chorus girl but was never cast in any roles because she was too dark. In one letter, St. Denis responded to Guy’s frustrations saying: "Dear Girlie, Yes, I know you have this race problem with you constantly, and a big problem it is. But, you see, dear, you are a very ignorant little girl in relation to the conditions in this big city. Some things cannot be forced or hurried". The two concurred that Guy needed to become more technically skilled before entering Denishawn and so she stayed under the tutelage of Ms. Linnel, her dance teacher in Harlem who taught entertainment-geared dance and did not plunge Guy in to the modern dance world that she longed to be a part of. In 1924 Guy was finally admitted to the Denishawn School in New York .