 Born in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and reared in Eustis, Florida, Mumaw began his dance training with a local ballet teacher when he was a boy of fifteen.He also took classes with Berte Rita Lipton, who taught him some fundamentals of modern dance, and he began to study ballet in earnest through a mail-order course from the Veronine Vestoff School of the Ballet in New York City.In 1930, at 18, Mumaw attended a dance program by the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, the company directed by Ted Shawn and his wife, Ruth St. Denis.