Mershon, Katharane Edson

California dancer and dance ethnographer.

Born in 1892, Mershon was the daughter of a musician, Charles Farwell Edson, originally of Chicago, and a prominent political activist, Katherine Philips Edson. Her mother was an important figure in California's Progressive Party in the early twentieth century, influential on behalf of woman suffrage and industrial and social reforms for women. Katharane did not follow her mother's political and social path, but instead became a dancer. She and her first husband, Harry Gray, toured the United State as a professional ballroom dancing team. She later joined Serge Oukrainsky and Andreas Pavley in Chicago for ballet training, and after divorcing Gray, she married Jack Mershon. Her life was long and full. Among many experiences, she lived in Bali, absorbing the dance rituals there, traveled in Europe and Angkor Wat, danced in Vienna and Paris, taught ballet at the University of California, and administered the Denishawn School. Mershon developed theories on dance and psychology, expressing her idea that there was much to be done in a field she called "corrective psychology". She eventually wrote a book on Balinese dance and culture entitled Seven Plus Seven, published in 1971. Katharane Edson Mershon died in Tarzana, California in 1986.