Performing Arts and the Theosophical Movement

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Art as an expression of spirituality is important to the Theosophical Movement. This article summarizes the relationship between Theosophists and the performing arts of drama and dance. See also:

Music and the Theosophical Movement

Art and the Theosophical Movement

Literature and the Theosophical Movement

Popular Culture and the Theosophical Movement

Occult fiction

Art movements and groups associated with Theosophists

Eurythmy

Rudolf Steiner and his wife Marie Steiner-von Sivers developed eurythmy as a form of movement expressing language and musical tones. It is used in the Waldorf Schools and has some applications for healing, according to the medical traditions of Anthroposophy.

Dancers influenced by Theosophy

• Rukmini Devi Arundale (1904-1986) was an Indian Theosophist best known as a dancer and educator, and as wife of George S. Arundale, President of the Theosophical Society based in Adyar, Chennai, India. She is widely recognized for reviving classical dance in India.
• Radha Burnier (1923–2013) was the seventh international president of the Theosophical Society (Adyar), serving for 33 years. She studied classical Indian dance with her aunt Rukmini Devi Arundale, and was the first student to graduate in Bharata Natya from Kalakshetra. She gave dance recitals in many cities in India and abroad, and acted in Jean Renoir’s classical film The River (Le Fleuve).
• Eleanor Elder was an English actor, dancer, producer, founder and manager of the Arts League of Service Travelling Theatre.
• Margaret Morris (1891-1980) was a British dancer, choreographer, artist and teacher who founded the Margaret Morris Movement.
• Vonda Urban (1918-2011) was an independent teacher of Theosophy who taught ballroom dancing at the elegant Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, Illinois, and became a local celebrity.

Actors and dramatists influenced by Theosophy

• Florence Farr was a British actress and writer who was active in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and became a member of the Theosophical Society.
• Walter Hampden was the stage name of Walter Hampden Dougherty (1879–1955), an American actor and theater manager who became a major star on London and Broadway stages, on television, and in films. He was a member of the American Theosophical Society and acted in a theatrical production of The Light of Asia at Krotona in Hollywood.
• Maud Hoffman (1869-1953) was an American Theosophist and actress. She performed classical roles in the United States and England. As heir to the estate of A. P. Sinnett, she entrusted A. Trevor Barker with the task of publishing The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett and The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett.
• Marie Russak Hotchener (1865-1945) was an American opera singer, architect, writer, editor, and secretary to H. S. Olcott and Annie Besant, prominent in the Theosophical Society (Adyar).
• Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. His plays form an important part of the Symbolist art movement, which was influenced by Theosophy.
• Isabelle M. Pagan was a Scottish Theosophist, writer, astrologer, and lecturer who wrote well-regarded texts on Astrology and the arts. She also wrote at least eight plays.
• Beatrice Wood (1893-1998) was an American ceramicist and writer who was influential in the Avant Garde movement. Known as "Beato" and the "Mama of Dada," she was a life member of the Theosophical Society in America and wrote several plays on Theosophical themes.

Actors and dramatists important to Theosophists

• William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a English playwright, poet, and dramatist. Shakespeare's poetry is still widely read, and his plays are continuously performed today.
• Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish writer and poet, who became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Wilde attended numerous Theosophical Society functions with his mother and in 1888 his wife Constance entered the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, of which W. B. Yeats was a member.

Dramas significant to Theosophists

These are plays written by Theosophists:

• Van Hook, Weller. The Promise of Christ's Return: A Sacred Play. Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1948. 14 pages.

See also

More information may be available in these wiki categories:

• Dancers
• Actors

Additional resources

Video

• The Drama at Lomaland - "The Soul's Interpreter" by Kenneth Small. May 17, 2025. Presented by the European School of Theosophy in the series Wisdom from the Lomaland Theosophical Community (1897-1942).

Websites

• ErythmyOnline.com offers webinars, classes, recordings, and other information about eurythmy by Barbara Bressette-Mills. Some are free and some require payment.
• Kalakshetra Foundation.