Person
Biography
Mona Rice was a direct artistic descendent of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, beginning her studies with Denishawn dancer Marion Rice as a child. She became a true family member after marrying Marion’s son and thereby also gained a dancing sister-in-law, the Merce Cunningham performer Carolyn Brown. She went on to found the dance department at the Cushing Academy and ran her own studio in Ashburnham, MA for many years. Rice performed at the Pillow only once, with her mother-in-law’s company known as Marion Rice’s Denishawn Dancers, in a special program presented just after Shawn’s death in 1972. Her two daughters, Robin and Rebecca Rice, have also both danced at the Pillow, and Rebecca Rice’s own company continued the family tradition on Inside/Out in 2004. Mona Rice died in November 2013 at the age of 82.
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