Professional Dancer. She was the grand dame of dance in Chicago for nearly 70 years and is credited with being the first choreographer to turn a full-blown opera into a full-blown ballet, remaking "Carmen" into "Guns and Castenets" in 1939. She began her professional dance career at the age of 15, and studied dance in New York. In the mid-1920s Page made her debut as a choreographer with "Frankie and Johnny," and joined forces with Bentley Stone to form Chicago's Page-Stone Ballet Company. From 1926 through 1970, Page served as first dancer, choreographer or director of such noted Chicago institutions as the Allied Arts, Chicago Grand Opera Company, Ravinia Opera Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Ballet and Chicago Ballet. For over 30 years Page was the director and choreographer of "The Nutcracker" at the Arie Crown Theater. In 1970, she founded the Ruth Page School of Dance, which currently has some 300 students. When Page died, she was the third major dance figure to have died in the span of a month, after English ballerina Margot Fonteyn and modern dance pioneer Martha Graham.
Professional Dancer. She was the grand dame of dance in Chicago for nearly 70 years and is credited with being the first choreographer to turn a full-blown opera into a full-blown ballet, remaking "Carmen" into "Guns and Castenets" in 1939. She began her professional dance career at the age of 15, and studied dance in New York. In the mid-1920s Page made her debut as a choreographer with "Frankie and Johnny," and joined forces with Bentley Stone to form Chicago's Page-Stone Ballet Company. From 1926 through 1970, Page served as first dancer, choreographer or director of such noted Chicago institutions as the Allied Arts, Chicago Grand Opera Company, Ravinia Opera Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Ballet and Chicago Ballet. For over 30 years Page was the director and choreographer of "The Nutcracker" at the Arie Crown Theater. In 1970, she founded the Ruth Page School of Dance, which currently has some 300 students. When Page died, she was the third major dance figure to have died in the span of a month, after English ballerina Margot Fonteyn and modern dance pioneer Martha Graham.
Family Members
Advertisement
See more Page memorials in:
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
