The love of the dance, music, mythology, philosophy and dress of countries including Greece, Egypt, India, North Africa, Japan and Java influenced the work of the American dancer Ruth St. Denis (1879-1968) throughout her long career. A pioneer of modern dance, she was entranced with Egyptian culture and imagery from her late teens, after seeing an image of the goddess Isis on an advertisement for Turkish cigarettes, and with Indian dance having seeing dancers in an East Indian Village at Coney Island in 1904 where, she recalled in her autobiography: 'the fascination of India caught hold of me'. She began avidly reading about the different cultures, and on her long 1906-09 European tour including several visits to London she presented her Indian Temple Dance Radha, Incense an Art Nouveau dance inspired by Delsartean undulating arm movements and Cobras a snake charmer, street dance inspired by The Streets of Delhi at Coney Island. While in London she regularly visited the Elgin Marbles and the Egyptian room at the British Museum, and the Indian Department of the South Kensington Museum.

This poster advertises the appearance of St. Denis with her husband Ted Shawn (1891-1972) and the Denishawn Company for two evenings in August 1923 at Mariarden Theatre, the outdoor summer theatre and dance training camp established in 1920 by the former actress and socialite Marie Burress (Mrs. Guy Currier), in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The appearance was part of three American tours organised for St. Denis, Ted Shawn and the Denishawn Company by the impresario Daniel Mayer in 1922/23, 1923/24, and 1924/1925. The tours were successful artistically, and at their height netted as much as $200,000, but with $40,000 commission to Mayer, $44,000 company salaries, $56,000 railroad fares, $28.000 for advertising and photography, $2,000 for insurance and replacements, and $10.000 for living expenses, made the couple no profit.