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La Meri was born in Louisville Kentucky in May of 1898 and christened Russell Meriwether Hughes (after her father). Her family moved to San Antonio when she was four, but she returned to Louisville for boarding school until high school.
In Texas, La Meri saw performances by Anna Pavlova, La Argentina, the Ballet Russes. A performance by the Denishawn Company inspired an interest in 'Oriental' dancing. She started an all-girl club, called the Alhambra of Tooba... "We wore Oriental costumes and, as could be predicted, I conducted classes in Oriental dancing. In my abysmal ignorance Oriental was all of a piece, the Orient being a big romantic domain of harems, flying carpets, and yogis; and I casually mixed Moorish, Indian, Turkish, Armenian and what-have-you to suit the requirements of the moment."
Her father died while she was still living at home, but her mother was able to put aside her grief and assist her daughters with their career interests. La Meri enrolled in College of Industrial Arts in Denton TX in 1916, started writing verses and planned a literary career. She went to NYC in 1920 but wasn't able to sell her work so returned to San Antonio. When she won a beauty contest, she joined a small movie company, and began to dance for local organizations. She decided to try her luck in NYC again, so back she went with an allowance of $20/week from her mother. When she was hired to play castanets for a Spanish dancer who didn't play them herself she met Maria Montero, the finest Spanish dancer in America. La Meri was hired for one of her tours.
La Meri's search for her own agent ended when Guido Carreras decided she was promising raw material and decided to mold and manage her dance career. He helped her assemble a company which toured Mexico, Cuba, South America, Europe, America, Australia, Tasmania, India, Burma, Java, Singapore, the Philippines, Shanghai, and Japan. Since it was common for companies on tour to stay in one city for weeks at a time, La Meri took the opportunity to study during the day with the best local teachers she could find while performing at night. After several tours, she became famous for her expertise in Spanish and Indian dancing.
Carreras and La Meri eventually married and bought a home in Italy. They returned to NYC permanently when WWII broke out in Europe. Ruth St Denis introduced herself and insisted that La Meri open a school of ethnic dance with her, the School of Natya. Since few young dancers could afford full tuition, the school survived on Tuesday dance programs, admission 75 cents. The School moved to the upper West side when offered rent-free studio and theatre space but the audiences "which gladly packed our studios in Tenth Street simply declined to make the trek up to 113th Street." The Natya Dancers were very much in demand, but not so much for paid performances, unfortunately, but for appearances at educational institutions. The School moved to 46th street and started making money on the Tuesday performances again. La Meri opened a dance theatre which earned substantial money performing at the American Museum of Natural History's ethnic-dance concerts twice a month.
In 1944 she choreographed Swan Lake using Indian dance techniques. This was her first conspicuous public step away from the purely authentic in dance. It was a success, both critically and financially. Many of the classical ballet Swan Queens came to view this version of the ballet.
Also in 1944: La Meri separated from husband. Guido had handled the finances and the business arrangements for all of her career and she tried to learn these things as best she could, but finances began a slow down-hill slide which never permanently reversed itself. The motivation for the divorce may have been Guido' numerous infidelities and La Meri's increasing determination to move away from traditional and authentic ethnic dance towards more creative departures.
She then choreographed Scheherazade, which was also a success. But the need to constantly create new programs and dance works in order to hold faithful audiences began to wear on her. She became ill and temporarily closed her theater and school. When she returned to work, she started the Exotic Ballet Company in 1946, which presented Bach-Bharata Suite, an abstract work using Hindu techniques for the interpretation of Bach compositions. This also was a success.
In 1947, she began a Young Artists series, inviting young artists of ethnic dance to appear in her theatre. The artists were offered a good stage, well lit, publicity, and fifty-percent of the gate. Fourteen young unknowns were presented, many of whom went on to highly successful careers.
In 1948 she decided to tour Latin America as a soloist in an attempt to earn more money. She came back to NYC convinced that the era of the solo dancer was finished. The world was changing. "People wanted large companies carrying complete decor and using full orchestra. Wonder at the delicate shadings in the program of the creative soloist had worn thin...Perhaps this had been brought about by the influence of the 'colossal' screen productions, or perhaps it was simply a natural evolution. The end result was frightening to contemplate. Where in future would the dancer find the financial means to meet these new demands? " On the way home to America, she decided to expand her company, find financial aid and learn how to obtain grants.
She found her center in a financial shambles and her students convinced that she 'was sitting on a pot of money and, for some reason of my own, was refusing to help extricate us from our plight.' Most of the students decided they would be better off striking out on their own. A company of 15 quickly shrunk to three dancers. Lacking a stable company, the Young Artists Series was abandoned and performances cut down from four a week to four a month. With a company of three she could not begin her plan of large company performances. She encouraged her young dancers to pursue TV performances. " There was no more vaudeville to replenish the empty coffers of the concert artist as there had been in the days of Denishawn. Even Broadway, which so often had saved dancers of my generation financially, had shrunk from some four hundred to some forty going theatres. The rest were empty or else their marquees announced live television shows. But few of my young dancers deigned to turn to this medium, and I, the misfit, could not." For La Meri, a live audience was of the essence.
In 1949 she expanded the curriculum in her NYC dance center. "In forty-five hours of classes a week they took not only dance techniques but the study of ethnic dance, history and culture as well as choreography, music fundamentals, and costume design." However, she wasn't able to get her school approved for inclusion in the college credit system.
"Then began the years that, in slow diminuendo, saw the shrinking frame of presentation for the ethnic dancer." The Museum of Natural History's ethnic-dance series closed, despite full houses and great artists on the stage. The Joseph Mann modern dance series, a major forum for modern dance in its formative years and which had often hired La Meri to present abstract creative works based on ethnic techniques, ceased. "These two long-established and highly respected dance series had died within a year of each other. Was television luring away the audience? Were increasingly hard-to-please critics discourage young dancers? Was a postwar America finding money too tight to spend on culture?"
Jacob's Pillow (Denishawn school) still functioned in the Berkshires, proud, strong and growing. La Meri was often invited to teach, perform and tour with the Jacob's Pillow company. She choreographed several successful works for them that received high compliment from audiences and artists alike.
In 1954 she decided to give up touring when she became allergic to hair dye. Since her natural color was completely white, she could no longer perform with her male partner who was in his twenties. She moved to Cape Cod with her sister in 1959. When her sister died in 1964 La Meri started the Ethnic Dance Arts company. The EDA was beset with the same old problems of lack of money, the necessity to give scholarships to good dancers, and then the loss of those same dancers to matrimony or another company. Her biography ends with the remark "...I chose this road myself and chose the horse to ride it. No wooden carousel steed, he! The unpredictable, pied mustang ethnic dance has given me a wild-running, hard-bucking ride but I did catch a few brass rings."
La Meri died in a hospital in San Antonio in 1989.
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