Ruth Zaporah
Ruth Zaporah is an American dancer who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She first danced at a very early age and now in her 60’s is still active. She teaches, performs, and writes about what she calls Action Theater. In college Ruth majored in philosophy.
Dancing
She initially trained in the ballet growing up in Baltimore, at college she was introduced to modern dance and immediately became attracted to the dramatic possibilities. She is "Zaporah is an internationally acclaimed artist whose groundbreaking work has won her grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (choreography fellowship) in 1986-87 and 1987-88." She moved into teaching in the mid sixties when she was offered a job in a Drama Department in a Maryland college teaching actors how to move. It was at this time that her fascination with improvisation started. Ruth Zaporah wrote a book titled Action Theater in 1995 about the twenty day training which she developed investigating the life-reflection process of improvisation.
Cultural Envoy
Ruth was recently named 1 of 13 Cultural Envoys by the U.S. State Department. Her responsibility as a cultural envoy is to introduce her Action Theatre to young Estonians and other international participants at the Young Dancers Festival and International Summer School in Viljandi.