Kilbourn, Ruth.

Chicago dancer and dance teacher.

Ruth Kilbourn was born in 1895 and lived her whole life in her home in Hyde Park, where she died at the age of 89 in 1984. Educated in Chicago schools, Kilbourn studied dance with several well-known teachers, and in her youth she appeared on Broadway and as an adagio dancer at the Chicago Opera House. After a back injury, she established the Kilbourn School of Dance in her home and studio and gave lessons in after-school programs at several public schools. She offered a wide range of popular styles: interpretive, character, Grecian, toe, ballroom, Oriental, and acrobatic, among others. Summer studio recitals were held in an outdoor Grecian-type theater in the backyard of her home. Kilbourn bred Samoyed dogs and she enjoyed saving and spinning the hair they shed in order to produce soft wool which she would knit or weave into small garments like mittens and scarves. For many years she was a volunteer at the Animal Welfare League and after her death her property was willed to the Chicago Anti-Cruelty Society.