Dance Remembrance: The Passing of a Denishawn Dancer

Mona Rice, who performed Denishawn and who founded the dance department at the Cushing Academy as well as her own studio in Ashburnham, MA, died in Boston on November 26 at the age of 82.

By Rebecca Rice (with Debra Cash)

Mona Irvine Rice in "Warrior Dance" at the age of 18. Photo: Denis Shawn

Mona Rice at the age of 18 in Denishawn’s “Warrior Dance.” Photo: Rice family.

Mona Dawn Irvine Rice was the ultimate romantic. She modeled her philosophy of life around her favorite prose poem, Desiderata and in its words, enjoyed her achievements as well as her plans. A modern dancer who performed Denishawn and who founded the dance department at the Cushing Academy as well as her own studio in Ashburnham, MA, died in Boston on November 26 at the age of 82.

Mona spent much of her early years studying ballet, modern, Denishawn, and ballroom dance at the Marion Rice Studio of the Dance in Fitchburg, MA, with her mentor, Marion Rice, who eventually became her mother-in-law when Mona married James Parker Rice, Jr. At the time of her death, they had been married 63 years.

Marion had been a student and performer with Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in the 1920s and early 30s. Beginning in the 1940s she presented and preserved their repertory via Marion Rice’s Denishawn Dancers. Mona performed lead roles with that troupe for more than 40 years, in time performing alongside three dancing generations: Marion Rice, her sister-in-law Carolyn (Rice) Brown (who became a leading dancer with the Merce Cunningham Company), and her two daughters, Robin Rice and myself.

When Mona and Robin danced a classic Ruth St. Denis duet in which the pair artistically manipulated two large red china-silk scarves to the music of Chopin, New York Times critic Don McDonough wrote “they formed a mirror image of one another with airy red costumes that they manipulated like butterfly wings approaching and moving away from delicate meetings as they skimmed across the stage.”

Mona Rice was not only a gifted performer but also an original choreographer. She choreographed over thirty works, including “Give a Damn” (1967), “Carmina Burana” (1968), “Emotions” (1976), and “Electronics” (1977) as well as many full-length original productions for children, “Creation” (1987) and “Peter and the Wolf” (1991) among them. Her credits included theater work at the High-Tor Summer Theater and with the Stratton Players in Fitchburg, MA, where she was both an actor and choreographer. She collaborated with Marion Rice and Carolyn Brown to choreograph “God of our Fathers” (De Koven), a work performed annually for 60 years at the end of each Marion Rice concert.

Posted in ,
Tagged:

1 Comment

  1. Sally Cragin on December 12, 2013 at 10:27 pm

    Thanks Debra. Mona was a fantastic dancer and dance teacher and I’m very glad to see this in your column.

Leave a Comment





Recent Posts