Ned Wayburn (1874 - 1942)

Ned Wayburn, born Edward Claudius Weyburn, (March 30 1874 - September 2 1942) was a choreographer. At the age of 21, he abandoned his family’s tradition of manufacturing and began teaching at the Hart Conway School of Acting in Chicago. There he worked with three faculty members who influenced his growing interest in dance and movement: C.H. Jacobsen, Colonel Thomas Hoyer Monstery, and Ida Simpson-Serven, whose teachings were based on Delsarte’s concepts about the meaning of gestures and their ability to communicate the emotion.