Ruth Rosenheim Solomon was born on June 10, 1935, in New York City. She attended the High School of Music and Art, where she specialized in design and graduated second in her class, with every expectation of attending the Rhode Island School of Design.
Much to her chagrin she was denied acceptance, having fallen victim of the school’s “Jewish quota.”
Fortunately, her mother had somehow discovered then-tiny Bard College, 70 miles north of the City, on the Hudson River. There she majored in drama, but made what turned out to be one of the most important acquaintances of her life, Jean Erdman, an ex-member of the original Martha Graham Company, who was teaching modern dance at the college.
Ruth had studied dance (mostly ballet) from the age of 6, so the transition to that discipline was a natural one. It was also a lasting one, as dance remained the primary focus of Ruth’s life to its very end.
The other important acquaintance made at Bard was John Solomon, who, in 1960, became her husband, a relationship that lasted for 63 years and produced two children. They lived in Soquel.
As a performer Ruth Solomon appeared on and off Broadway, on television, and
in concerts throughout the United States, Canada, and Japan. She was for many years a permanent member and solo dancer with the Jean Erdman Dance Theater, and more briefly a “swing dancer” — i.e., one whose responsibility is to know and be ready to perform all cast roles — with the original Broadway production of “West Side Story.”
Ruth created more than 60 works in her unique version of the modern dance idiom, in addition to staging and choreographing such diverse musical/dramatic productions as Euripides’ Hecuba, Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat, and Brecht’s Three Penny Opera.
From 1967 to 1970 she was assistant director of the dance program at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. She then directed the dance program that she established in Theater Arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the new College Five (now Porter College) until her retirement in 1995.
Her highly successful teaching technique was documented in an hour-long video, Anatomy as a Master Image in Training Dancers. After appearing as an invited speaker at the Olympic Scientific Congress in Seoul, South Korea (1988), she taught in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, and Japan (1990-2002). She was also a guest teacher on numerous college and university campuses in the U.S.
Her articles on dance performance, administration, and pedagogy appeared in Dance Magazine, Dance Teacher Now, Kinesiology and Medicine for Dance, and various other periodicals.
Around 1980, she began asking why dancers had back and knee problems and needed hip replacements. She delved into dance medicine and attended night classes at Cabrillo College to become a certified medical assistant.
Her research in dance medicine produced publications in such medical journals as The Physician and Sports Medicine and The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.
Her most extensive books are Prevention of Injuries in the Young Dancer (Springer International Publications 2017), Preventing Dance Injuries (Second Edition, Human Kinetics Books, 2005), Soviet-American Dance Medicine 1990 (AAHPERD Press, 1991), The New Faces of Dance Scholarship (AAHPERD Press, 1992), and East Meets West in Dance: Voices in the Cross-Cultural Dialogue (Gordon and Breach/Routledge Press, 1995).
The nineth edition of her Dance Medicine & Science Bibliography, covering the literature in the field for the last 60 years and containing 5,833 citations, became available in January, 2023.
Some of her latest publications include: “Chronic Lower-Leg Compartment Syndrome in Young Athletes” (American Journal of Sports Medicine), “Arthroscopic Debridement of Hip Labral Tears in Dancers,” “Neurologic Back Injuries in Dancers,” a chapter in Sports Neurology (Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott-Raven Publishers), “Psychological Issues in Dance Medicine” (a two-part Special Issue of the Journal of Dance Medicine & Science), and “Publications in Dance Medicine and Science: A Bibliographer’s Perspective” (Medical Problems of Performing Artists).
She was the National Dance Association’s “Scholar of the Year” for 1992, “Dance Professional of the Year” (1998), and “Heritage Honoree” (2003).
She served on the board of directors of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) from its inception in 1990 to 2010, and in 2007 was elected co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, and continued to serve in that capacity until 2021.
She did annual three-month “residencies” under the direction of Dr. Lyle Micheli at the Division of Sports Medicine, Harvard Medical Center, Boston, for 39 consecutive years, until the onset of COVID. During these residencies she conducted several major dance medicine studies with dancers of the Boston Ballet.
In 2010 she was named Honorary Fellow of the Division of Sports Medicine, Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical Center. In 2017 she became a Fellow of IADMS, and was given “A Lifetime Achievement Award” by that organization.
She died on June 12 in Santa Cruz.
Betsy Fisher posted photos on Facebook with these comments, “What a career. What a powerhouse” — and Tandy Beal reposted.
See Ruth Solomon’s Nov. 9, 2021 lecture on dance and injury prevention on YouTube.
Ruth Solomon was a bundle of energy who brought her many talents to all aspects of the field of dance. For this she was rewarded with a good deal of admiration on both personal and institutional levels. She was a perfectionist who demanded the absolute best of herself and others, yet was able to do this in such a way as to develop lasting friendships with both her students and peers. Her many contributions will not soon be forgotten.
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Editor’s note: During the pandemic, locals could see Ruth Solomon walking down Old San Jose Road in Soquel picking up garbage. She would walk two miles down, cross the road, then walk two miles back, picking up trash along the way.
Photos provided by the family.