[1][2] Her parents were Ruth Emma Hull (a physician by training), and Thomas Laban Dennis, a machinist and inventor; they were not married.

[7] In 1891 she raised the money to travel briefly to New York, auditioning in the Marwig studio; she was pronounced to have talent, and her mother set about getting her into theatre.

[8] In 1892, she witnessed the Delsarte advocate Genevieve Stebbins performing a matinee, The Dance of Day; she described the experience as "the real birth of my art life".

[8] In 1894, after years of practicing Delsarte poses, she debuted as a skirt dancer for Worth's Family Theatre and Museum.

She was at a drugstore with another member of Belasco's company in Buffalo, New York, when she saw a poster advertising Egyptian Deities brand cigarettes.

Students studied ballet movements without shoes, ethnic and folk dances, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, and Delsarte gymnastics.

[21] Other notable dancers such as Doris Humphrey, Lillian Powell, Evan-Burrows Fontaine and Charles Weidman studied at Denishawn.

Graham, Humphrey, Weidman and the future silent film star Louise Brooks all performed as dancers with the Denishawn company.

[25] For many years, St. Denis taught dance at her studio, at 3433 Cahuenga Boulevard West, near Universal City, California.

George Jackson described this as "waft[ing] into space as the image of a woman in motion amidst ascending spirals of smoke", conveying "serenity, 'spirituality' if you will, ... [not] at odds with sensuality.

"[27] St. Denis was inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame in 1987, its first year.