ABSTRACT
On November 25, 1892 Genevieve Stebbins gave a Delsarte matinee to benefit the National Christian League for the Promotion of Social Purity. Performing pantomimes and recitations on Greek and Oriental themes, as well as her signature statue poses in which she melted from one famous classical image to another (New York Times 1892:9), she manifested what Ruth St. Denis later remembered as the serenity and coordination of an angel or goddess (St. Denis 1960). Stebbins’s blend of spirituality, classical culture, artistic aspiration, and consummately controlled, graceful movement would surely have seemed to be the epitome of nobility, the very model of deportment, for the ladies and gentlemen who comprised the membership of the National Christian League. Dedicated to improving the moral tenor of life, the members of that socially concerned organization helped women find economic alternatives to prostitution, encouraged paternal responsibility, pressed for legislation that would make adultery a crime, and sponsored edifying entertainments at which young men and women could socialize (National Christian League 1892-3:9, 12, 13-14, 17).
