Mary Jane Wolbers

Person
Biography
Mary Jane Wolbers was a pioneer in the field of liturgical dance, a pursuit that brought her closely into the orbit of Pillow founder Ted Shawn, his partner Ruth St. Denis, and Jacob’s Pillow. One of her earliest teachers had been Marion Rice, a Denishawn disciple while her most important mentor was the influential dance educator Margaret H’Doubler, who had been an early faculty member at Jacob’s Pillow. Her involvement with liturgical dance began when she was an undergraduate student in the 1940s and Wolbers later served as a member of the Society of Spiritual Arts, a group founded by Ruth St. Denis. Her strongest Pillow connections came through the Sacred Dance Guild, which Wolbers co-founded and which held its first four annual gatherings at Jacob’s Pillow, beginning in 1958. She continued her Pillow ties through frequent visits from her home in Temple, NH, where she died in April 2018 at 95.
Source of Biography
Written by Norton Owen for Jacob's Pillow Remembers.
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