July 21, 1914: Emily Schupp, aka “Lada,” performs in her home town

On this day in 1914, native Duluthian Emily Schupp performed six dances at the Orpheum Theater. Schupp, had become a famous dancer since she left town roughly a decade earlier. From 1907 to 1910 she traveled throughout Europe, studying the folk dances of Russia, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Sweden, Norway, and Germany. In 1912 she moved to New York City to continue her studies. She began her professional career on April 24, 1914, at New York’s Princess Theater. By then she had adopted the stage name “Lada.” (The story is that a Czech composer, Reinhold Gliere, after seeing her dance, wrote a song for her entitled “Lada,” which means “the awakening,” connoting the spirit of youth.) A reviewer at the time said of that performance: “Miss Lada has an unusual sense of rhythm and the imaginative gift. She is light and graceful, temperamental and poetic.” Another called her, “the latest of American pioneers in dancing, and the one on whom has descended their mantle.” For her 1914 Duluth performance at Duluth’s Orpheum Theatre, Schupp and other Wellesly College alumnae depicted “Life at Wellesly.” Schupp’s performance of Strauss’s “Blue Danube” was a particular winner with the crowd. Read more about Schupp here.

Emily “Lada” Schupp photographed when she was a solo dancer for the Russian Symphony. (Image: Public Domain)