Martha Blanchard Deane, the daughter of William and Elizabeth (Chapman) Deane, was born January 10, 1896 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Her father was joint proprietor and the headmaster of Harry Hillman Academy, a private boys' school. Her mother had taught briefly before their marriage, and so education had always been of great importance in the Deane household. Miss Deane attended the Wilkes-Barre Institute, a private girls' school, which offered an excellent educational program. After graduation from the Institute, she earned her elementary teaching credential at Bloomsburg Normal School, and in 1917, she accepted her first position, teaching first grade and also coaching the high school girls' basketball team in Milton, Pennsylvania. At the end of two years she returned to Wilkes-Barre to teach In the Continuation School, a special school to serve the educational needs of the children who worked in the nearby factories.
After this disheartening experience, she left for New York to enroll at Columbia Teachers' College. The whole concept of education, and physical education in particular, was undergoing a tremendous change at Columbia at this time. A new emphasis was placed on natural gymnastics and "natural dance" as taught by Gertrude Colby instead of the formal physical training of the past.
After completion of her studies at Columbia in 1924, Miss Deane accepted the invitation of Ruth Atkinson, the chairman of the Physical Education Department at the University of California, Southern Branch, to come West and join the faculty as dance instructor. In those years of teaching on the Vermont Avenue Campus, she introduced an approach to the teaching of dance that was "based on natural body movement. For her, dance should be a self-realizing and freeing experience in the education of the student. Under her supervision the Dance Recital became an annual event of the university year. In 1949 Miss Deane attained the rank of professor and became director of the Women's Division of the Physical Education Department. During her years of service to UCLA, she was a member of many important university and departmental committees, one of which was the committee that established the Theater Arts Department at UCLA. In 1950 she was chosen to represent the UCLA faculty at the dinner honoring President Sproul's twentieth anniversary as president.
In addition to her university duties, Miss Deane has been active in professional and community affairs. In the summer of 1938 she acted as a delegate to the Congres International de la Danse, consideree comme un moyen d!education, at the University of Paris. The American Academy of Physical Education presented her with a citation for her work on the Core Curriculum Program for major students at UCLA, and she was later elected to the Academy in 1950. She is an active member of the League of Women Voters and a frequent speaker to this and many other civic and professional groups.
In the following narrative, which is a transcript of tape-recorded Interviews made "by Miss Deane with the Oral History Program, she describes her role in the development of the dance at UCLA and other aspects of her active career. Records relating to the interviews are located in the office of the UCLA Oral History Program.