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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with with permission permission of the of copyright the copyright owner. owner.Further reproduction Further reproduction prohibited without prohibited permission. without permission. DORIS HUMPHREY: CHOREOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS
by
Changhee Lee
submitted to the
Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences
of American University
in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree
o f M aster o f Arts
in
Dance
Cha
Kirsten Bodensteiner
Dean o f the College
Date 2000
American University
Washington, D.C. 20016
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Copyright 2000 by Lee, Changhee
All rights reserved.
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Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. © C O PY R IG H T
by
CHANGHEE LEE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
2000
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DORIS HUMPHREY: CHOREOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS
BY
Chan ghee Lee
ABSTRACT
Doris Humphrey made important contributions to American dance. Analysis of
selected works in three chronological periods provides insight into her choreographic
development.
The first period of Humphrey’s choreography to be analyzed is 1928-1934; 1928
was the year she began her own dance company with Charles Weidman. The two works
analyzed are Air for the G String ( 1928) and The Shakers (1931). The second period is
1935-1944. It was in 1935 that Humphrey created her first evening-length work, New
Dance (1935). The year 1944 was chosen to close this period, as in that year Humphrey
stopped performing. The three works studied for this period are New Dance (1935); With
Mv Red Fires (1936): and PassacagHa (1938). Three works are analyzed which Humphrey
created during the last period of her life, 1945-1958: Day on Earth (1947): Night Spell
( 1951); and Dawn in New York ( 1956).
ii
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT...... ii
C hapter
1. DORIS HUMPHREY: OVERVIEW OF DANCE CAREER...... I
2. SELECTED CHOREOGRAPHY 1928-1934...... 8
3. SELECTED CHOREOGRAPHY 1935-1944 ...... 16
4. SELECTED CHOREOGRAPHY 1945-1958...... 25
5. CONCLUSION...... 32
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 36
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1
DORIS HUMPHREY: OVERVIEW OF DANCE CAREER
Doris Humphrey was bom in Oak Park, Illinois, on October 17, 1895.' Her father
worked for the Chicago Herald newspaper, but he did not make enough to support a
family. He was offered a position as manager of the Palace Hotel, and the family moved
into the hotel when Humphrey was three years old.2 When it came time for her to start
school, she was sent to the Francis W. Parker School.3 Mary Wood Hinman, an early
dance pioneer, taught her the fundamentals of dance there, and later Humphrey enrolled at
Hinman’s own school in Chicago.4 As the lessons went on, Hinman urged Humphrey’s
mother to take her to other teachers. She began ballet lessons with Josephine Hatlanek.
Andreas Pavley. and Serge Oukrainsky.5
1 Siegel, Marcia B. Day on Earth: The Dance of Doris Humphrey. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987), 13. 2 Cohen, Selma Jeanne. Doris Humphrey: An Artist First. (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1972), 3. 3 Siegel, 18. 4 Mary Wood Hinman was a great dance educator. She graduated from the Swedish College of the Naas and learned folk dance. She taught at the Francis W. Parker School and the Laboratory School of the University of Chicago. She also supervised dance programs in the Chicago settlements, including Hull House. She opened the School of Gymnastic and Folk Dancing in 1904. 5 Josephine Hatlanek came from Vienna, where she had been a ballet dancer. Andreas Pavley (1892-1931) began dancing at age 13. He joined Anna Pavlova’s company in 1913. Serge Oukrainsky (1885-1972) began his dance career in 1911. He was Anna Pavlova’s partner from 1913 to 1915. Pavley and Oukrainsky met in Pavlova’s Company. They were co-choreographers and co-performers for two decades. They also taught private lessons and Doris Humphrey was one of their pupils in 1916. Pavley and Oukrainsky were to become the ballet masters and choreographers of the Chicago Opera. They also directed their own company.
1
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. After graduating from the Parker school in 1913, Doris Humphrey organized her
own dancing classes in Oak Park, Illinois. It was not long before Mary Wood Hinman
recommended that Humphrey study with Ruth St. Denis, and in 1917 she enrolled in the
Denishawn School in Los Angeles.6 In the following year, Doris Humphrey performed as
a member of the Denishawn Company.7 During that time, Humphrey also started to assist
St. Denis in her teaching.
In 1919. Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn each decided to establish their own
companies. In that year, St. Denis began making works for the Ruth St. Denis Concert
Dancers, and Humphrey became part of this group. During the Concert Dancers tour. St.
Denis explored the technique she called music visualization.8 At this time. Humphrey was
very much under St. Denis’s influence, and Humphrey created her first choreography in
collaboration with St. Denis: Soaring (1920) and Sonata Pathetique (1920). During that
time. Doris Humphrey also created two dances of her own. Scarf Dance (1920) and The
Beach Bourree (1920).9
In 1920 the St. Denis Concert Dancers began a second tour, and, after this tour, the
company was disbanded. Humphrey was temporarily at a loss for what to do. She decided
to form her own dance company and toured in vaudeville from 1921 to 1922.10 During the
time Humphrey toured with her own group, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn joined
6 Siegel. 28-29. 7 Ibid.. 34. s Ibid., 38. 9 Ibid., 39. 10 Hausler, Barbara, “influences on Doris Humphrey's Early Dance Technique.” (M.F.A. Thesis, York University, 1992), 95.
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forces again and toured with their dancers as the Denishawn Company.11 Two people
Humphrey met while at Denishawn became important partners in her life and work:
Charles Weidman and Pauline Lawrence.
Charles Weidman wanted to be a dancer throughout his teenage years in Lincoln,
Nebraska after seeing Denishawn performances. In 1920, he came to Los Angeles and
began studying at the Denishawn School. Soon Shawn gave Weidman the role to replace
an injured dancer as Martha Graham’s partner.12
In 1919. Pauline Lawrence joined the Denishawn Company as pianist and dancer.
She also toured with the St. Denis Concert Dancers. During the following year, she served
as pianist, conductor, and business manager for Humphrey’s vaudeville group.13 Doris
Humphrey and Pauline Lawrence worked and lived together during that time. They were
invited to rejoin the Denishawn Company in 1922.14 Doris Humphrey toured with St.
Denis and Ted Shawn in the Denishawn Company through 1926. During that time, she
created, in collaboration with St. Denis, A Burmese Yein Pwe (1926): she also created
some new works of her own: Sonata Tragica (1923), Hoop Dance (1924). At the Spring
(1926). and Whims (1926).15
Doris Humphrey toured the Orient with Denishawn from 1925 to 1926.
Immediately after returning from the Orient, the Denishawn Company set out on a cross
country American tour.16 Humphrey found the touring very tiring and not artistically
11 Ibid., 96. 12 Siegel, 50. 13 Ibid., 44-46. 14 Cohen, 39. 13 Siegel. 53. 16 Cohen. 70.
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rewarding. By the time the Denishawn Company came back to New York in 1927,
Humphrey admitted, “This year for the first time I don’t feel that I’ve come back bigger
and better.’’17 Doris Humphrey decided to make an arrangement with St. Denis and Shawn
that she would no longer tour with them, but she would run the school in New York with
Charles Weidman. With the directors away, Humphrey felt free to work on her own
choreography. She found independence: “I feel more free to do as I please now that the
year has really started, and I let my imagination run - instead of teaching the old routine
things."18
By 1927, Humphrey knew that she did not wish to continue as part of the
Denishawn activities. Humphrey was able to take a couple of weeks of vacation in
Westport, Connecticut.19 During that time she developed some of her own ideas, created
Color Harmony. Fairy Garden. Pathetic Study, and Air for the G String. The final break
between Doris Humphrey and Denishawn School and Company took place at a meeting in
1928. Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn discussed several policies they wanted to put into
effect: the maintenance of 90 percent Anglo-Saxon student body to ensure Americanism;
the monitoring of sexual activities of company members; and the commercialization of
the dances. By the end of the meeting, it was clear that the differences between Humphrey
and Denishawn were insurmountable.20 Humphrey encouraged Weidman and Lawrence to
join her in breaking away from Denishawn.
17 Siegel, 53. 18 Cohen, 75. 19 Siegel, 55. 20 Ibid.. 61-62
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In 1928, Doris Humphrey opened her own dance school and company with
Charles Weidman and Pauline Lawrence. Humphrey wanted to continue experimenting
w ith her own movement discoveries instead of continuing to do things the Denishawn
way. When Humphrey decided to completely break away from Denishawn, she would
turn to "her soil, her background, as experience for inspiration.”21 She wanted to develop
her own ideas.
Humphrey worked in the studio and read voluminously. She had been reading
Frederick Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy and found that his ideas of the pull within life and
all of us and the Apollonian and Dionysian ways of living and functioning were relevant
to her own thoughts. Nietzsche wrote about the Apollonian power of thought, intellect and
control, as opposed to the Dionysian pull of passion and spirit. As Humphrey explored
movement in the studio, she began to feel that body was in a constant pull between
resisting gravity and giving in to gravity, between the control and intellectual desire and
need to stay upright, and between the passionate desire and need to let go and release. She
began to develop the concept she called “the arc between two deaths.”22 It was clear to her
that the body could be thrown off balance by any movement, and that her body was
always fighting to resist being off balance. She began to find excitement and validity in
those points where she could fall and then recover; she would give in and then resist, and
find the movements that would capture this in many different ways.
21 Terry, Walter. The Dance in America. (New York: Harper&Row Publishers, 1956),
^ 1 0 4 ‘ 22 Stodelle, Ernestine. The Dance Technique of Doris Humphrey and Its Creative Potential. (Princeton, N.J: Princeton Book Co., 1978), 14.
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Theory had to be translated into practice, and Humphrey gradually developed
exercises and a technical method to express her ideas of fall and recovery, the arc between
two deaths, and the concept of struggling with equilibrium. She developed ways for the
body to work with these ideas, and these became sequential exercises and the basis for her
choreographic movement phrases. An important aspect of exploring fall and recovery also
became the use of breath. Humphrey found that the use of breath in a pronounced way
was a crucial aspect of giving in to gravity and then recovering. When the breath was
taken in, there was a sense of being centered, and when the breath was let out. there was a
sense of giving in and releasing. As Humphrey developed her technique and the related
exercises, the work became more complex and more difficult. As part of the exercises,
Humphrey also began exploring rhythm, and she found that her ideas lent themselves to
rhythmic patterns that were not even, but that had varying components of syncopation,
even and uneven patterns, and measures not of three or four beats, but often measures of
seven or nine beats.
Doris Humphrey had her own company with Charles Weidman until 1944. During
this time, she created Color Harmony (1928). Water Study (1928). Life of the Bee (1929L
The Drama of Motion (1930), Circular Descent (1931), Pointed Ascent (1931), The
Shakers (1931), Dionvsiaques (1932), New Dance (1935), With My Red Fires ( 1936),
Passacagha (1938), and Inquest (1944). From 1934-1942, she taught, danced, and
choreographed during the Summer Sessions at the Bennington College School of Dance.
In 1930, Jose Limon began his training with Doris Humphrey and was in the
Humphrey-Weidman Company. After so many years with Humphrey-Weidman, Jose
Limon felt the need to develop his own ideas, and he formed his own company in 1946. In
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1945, Humphrey was plagued by an arthritic hip. It became so severe that she always
limped, and it forced her to retire from performing on the stage as a dancer, her last
performance was Inquest in 1944. Though she could no longer perform, she could
choreograph and she could direct. Humphrey continued to choreograph and teach, and she
became the artistic director of the Jose Limon Company in 1946. Humphrey produced
important works for the Limon Company from 1946 to 1958 such as: Lament for Ignacio
Sanchez Mejias. Dav on Earth. Night Spell. Ritmo Jondo. Ruins and Visions, and Dawn
in New York. In 1951, Humphrey joined the dance faculty at the Juilliard School of
Music.
At the time of her death, Humphrey left her autobiography in an uncompleted
manuscript, and it was completed and edited by Selma Jeanne Cohen.23 Her book on
choreography, The Art of Making Dances, was published posthumously in 1959.24
23 Siegel, 291. 24 Terry, 110.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 2
SELECTED CHOREOGRAPHY 1928-1934
Doris Humphrey began her career as a choreographer in 1920. During the period
1920-1928, she created several pieces, both on her own and with Ruth St. Denis. In
collaboration with Ruth St. Denis she created the following: Soaring (1920). Sonata
Pathetique (1920). and A Burmese Yein Pwe (19261. On her own, for the Denishawn
group, she created the following: Scarf Dance ( 19201. The Bach Bourree ( 1920). Sonata
Tragica (1923), Hoop Dance ( 1924), At the Spring (1926), and Whims (1926)
The focus of this chapter is on the work Humphrey created during the first three
years she and Charles Weidman had their own company. This was an important creative
period for Humphrey. It was during this period that she developed her own independent
choreographic career. Air for the G String (1928) and The Shakers (1931) have been
chosen for analysis, as they are two works that are still performed today, and recognized
as important pieces. During this period she created many pieces including; Color
Harmony (1928), The Fairy Garden ( 1928), The Banshee (1928), Water Study ( 1928),
Li fe o f the Bee ( 1929). Drama of Motion (1930). Dances of Women ( 1931). Two Ecstatic
Themes (1931). Dionvsiaques (1932). Suite in E (1933). Exhibition Piece (1934). and
Credo ( 1934).
Air for the G String was first performed at the Little Theater in Brooklyn on
March 24, 1928, and a film of this dance was made in 1934. Air for the G String uses the
music from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Suite No. 3 in D major.
8
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The first image in Air for the G String is that of the five dancers waking
downstage with their backs to the audience. They are dressed in simple, floor-length
dresses, with long scarves flowing off their shoulders, trailing behind them. They continue
moving slowly upstage, lifting their hands and opening their arms. The dance proceeds
with one of the dancers becoming the central figure, and then all the dancers move in
measured pace through a series of lines and then a series of simple, uniform shapes. The
music is a very important component in this piece. Humphrey mirrors the phrases in the
music by Bach, and the dancers move with the dynamics and the beats as written by the
composer. The dancers move through space with smooth walking steps and create
flowing shapes. Their steps coincide with the underlying beat of Bach’s long melodic
rhythm.
There are several important components in Air for the G String related to
Humphrey’s development as a choreographer. The work shows the influence of St.
Denis’s ideas about music visualization, or working closely with musical accompaniment.
Humphrey moves away from the exotic pseudo-oriental ideas of St. Denis, however, in
search of a purity of expression, related only to movement. Humphrey realized she
wanted to work with pure dance, not dance derived from another culture. She had been
involved in St. Denis’ creations of dances based on Indian, Spanish, or other international
material. She had shown an interest in pure movement earlier in her career, but now she
was clearer about the direction she wanted to take.
The critic Walter Terry suggested that when Humphrey broke away from
Denishawn in 1928, she realized that her pathway would be different. *it became apparent
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to her that it would be impossible for her as an American to maintain ethnologic integrity
in her dancing of Oriental themes, and with that awareness the break with Denishawn was
ordained."25 When Humphrey began the process of creating a new style of her dance, she
turned to her soil, her background, her experience for inspiration.26
When Humphrey created The Shakers, she was turning to American soil for
inspiration. She was intrigued by a group in America that had framed its life and beliefs in
a completely unique way. The group called the Shakers had originated in mid-eighteenth
century England, and a small group came to America in 1774. By the mid-nineteenth
century, there were about 6,000 Shakers in nineteen separate communities. The group
flourished on American soil. Their communities were known not only for their religious
beliefs and way of life, but also for the furniture they produced. The main features of
Shaker life were communal living where everything was shared, separation of sexes with
a rule of celibacy, opportunity for women to become spiritual leaders, and equal status of
the sexes. They did their own farming, and were well known for the quality o f their
produce. They dressed very simply, and lived simple, ordered lives.
Humphrey was fascinated by many aspects of Shaker life. It was fascinating to her
that all of Shaker life was a complicated struggle for equilibrium. She saw the struggle for
them to live together, sharing equally. She saw the struggle for them to be celibate, and
live in equilibrium between desire and control. She saw the struggle for them to reach
God through their bodies and souls, and yet live productive lives on this earth. She saw
25 Terry, 103-104. 26 Ibid., 104.
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the struggle for them to have an ecstatic, spiritual component to their lives, and yet be
solidly based on earth as productive, controlled human beings.
When Humphrey premiered The Shakers at Hunter College on November 12,
1931. it was an important piece for her to have completed. It was a very large group piece,
originally performed by seventeen dancers. In the Labanotation score, the dance is usually
performed by thirteen dancers, but according to Selma Jeanne Cohen’s book. An Artist
First, it was performed by seventeen dancers. It was created to an original score of voice,
accordion, and drum. Humphrey’s movement ideas of fall and recovery were clearly
being developed in this dance, and her movement phrases illustrated a powerful use of
release into gravity and then recovery, developed with use of breath, as well as the
thrusting of torso, arms, and legs, and additions of turns resulting from the force of
recovery.
The research that Humphrey did on the Shaker communities was based on books
and pictures. She learned that the Shakers worshipped mainly through song and dance,
that they kept men and women separate, and that they attempted to shake the sins out of
their bodies. She wanted to capture the tension between living a celibate life with men and
women co-existing through work and worship. She wanted to capture the struggle
between having a productive life in their daily agricultural communities, and their
struggle to be pure and reach spiritual communion with a higher being. For Humphrey,
there was a parallel with her own life, and for her the Shaker existence was a way of
reaching into her own experience. She knew well the struggle to reach a higher plane
through her work and the devotion this entailed. She also knew well the struggle to get
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through the required daily struggles and chores. She, too, always sought equilibrium in
her life and found this to be unending.
Humphrey’s The Shakers begins when the dancers are kneeling, with men on one
side of the stage, and women on the other. A woman, the Eldress, sits on a box and the
dancers clasp their hands, rocking towards the ground. They move upstage, and the
Eldress comes to the center, with one arm pointed skyward. The dancers, in arm-linked
pairs, form two star patterns as a wheel, and begin a series of jumps. They stop, and one
of the men points to the heavens and speaks: “My life! My carnal life! I will lay it down
because it is depraved!” After that the group starts jumping; the Eldress stands on the box
and clasps her hands. As she begins to speak, all the dancers fall on their knees: the men
put their hands flat on the floor, and the women bend backwards with open arms. She
says: “It hath been revealed. Ye shall be saved, when ye are shaken free of sin!”
The Eldress begins moving in slow motion. She alternates between folding her
body over as if falling to the ground, and reaching arms and body upward. In doing this,
she expresses a key symbol in the dance and the life of the Shakers - the polarity between
heaven and earth, between the carnal and the spiritual. The Eldress then initiates a key
movement phrase in the dance; this is where the body moves through space with a strong
sense of fall and recovery. The locomotion is forward and then down, and then there is a
spiral and breath around initiated by the torso and followed by large sweep of the leg and
arm. The phrase is a visual metaphor for the tight controls of Shaker life, and the release
necessary to live and pray and commune with God and the supreme being.
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At the end of the dance, the Eldress spins with open arms. One by one, the dancers
make one last flinging jump into the air, and then sink to their knees with their arms open
and reaching. When the last dancer comes to the floor, the dancers all clasp their arms
in front of them, as if in prayer and supplication. Then, a final powerful gesture
encompasses the spirit of the dance: the Eldress points slowly to the sky, reaching to the
heavens.
All the patterns and gestures in the dance symbolize the life of the Shakers and the
broader universal codes they live by. We see the clasping of the hands to symbolize
prayer, the opening of the arms with palms up to symbolize the receiving of God’s grace,
the shaking of the individuals and the group to symbolize the shaking out the sin, and the
pointing gestures symbolizing contact with God. The spatial paths also have meaning.
There are circles to show the unity of the group, and there are lines to show duty and
order. There are also individuals who jump out from the group, to show the need for
measured individuality, and there are lines that cross, to show the measured interaction of
the sexes, without physical contact.
The musical accompaniment and spoken word also play an important role in the
dance. The accompaniment was clearly developed to reflect the austere simplicity of
Shaker life, and it also provides a warmth and comforting effect to the dance. It is not
jarring sound; certainly Shaker life had a comforting component to those who lived in
these communities and shared everything. The voice is pure and clean, and the drum is
strong and clear, as is the harmonium. The spoken words are stripped of all but the
essence of what needs to be said and heard.
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These two dances in the period 1928-1934 show interesting growth on the part of
Humphrey as a choreographer and artist. Air for the G String ( 1928) was her first effort as
an independent choreographer. She made a conscious effort not to have any movements
that might derive from oriental or exotic themes to allow her to move away from the
Denishawn influence. In Air for the G String, she sought to explore simple, basic
movements with a direct relationship to the music. Humphrey began her exploration of
large groups in this dance. Her other work, previous to this, utilized solo performance or
small groups, as in Soaring, which had five dancers. The movements in Air for the G
String began to utilize the whole body from the center, to make flowing shapes that were
clear and sculptural. Choreographed for five dancers, Humphrey explored gently shifting
spatial patterns. The close phrasing of the movement with Bach's music is clearly
reminiscent of St. Denis’s music visualization, but goes a bit further because of
Humphrey’s use of large groups and changing spatial patterns.
In The Shakers ( 1931), Humphrey went further in her development as a
choreographer. She explored her own movement philosophy and developed her
vocabulary based on this philosophy. She utilized the idea of fall and recovery, and it
becomes very clear in The Shakers that this is an important direction in expressing
movement for Humphrey. In fall and recovery, the dancers give into gravity with their
entire bodies, and then at the last minute, the bodies rebound and move up and away from
the downward pull of gravity. The Shakers also shows Humphrey’s development as a
choreographer in her use of groups and spatial patterns. She utilizes thirteen dancers and
several different spatial configurations: lines, circles, squares, and star shapes. The
patterns here shift constantly and create strong visual images.
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The Shakers also shows Humphrey’s growth in the utilization of symbolism. In
this dance she successfully creates movement and spatial symbols that abstract the
religious beliefs and lifestyle of the Shaker community. We see the pull of heaven and
earth, the sexual tensions implicit in the celibate life, and the yearning to reach a higher
spiritual plane. The symbols are clear in the movements: the reaching up and out, the
falling to the earth and the jumping up and out to recovery, the turning and shaking. The
symbols are also clear in the spatial patterns: the tensions in the lines, the coming together
in the circles and the star shape that reminds one of the heavenly skies. In this dance the
music is an arrangement of wordless soprano voice, accompanied by a harmonium
playing a hymn tune, and periods of silence followed by a drum beat that provides solo
accompaniment to movement. In this dance, the movement was not choreographed to the
music, as in Air for the G String: it was created to enhance the movements and the dance.
During the period 1928-1934, we can see significant growth in Humphrey as a
choreographer. This growth is clearly seen in the two pieces examined from this period:
Air for the G String and The Shakers. In the next chapter, Humphrey’s developments as a
choreographer will be explored for the period 1935-1944.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 3
SELECTED CHOREOGRAPHY 1935-1944
New Dance (1935) marks the beginning of Humphrey’s second period as an
independent choreographer. It was her first evening-length work and will be analyzed in
this chapter. Two other dances will also be analyzed for this period: With Mv Red Fires
(1936) and Passacaglia (1938). This chapter closes with the year 1944 when Humphrey
stopped performing.
New Dance premiered at Bennington College in 1935, and the music was
composed specially for the dance by the American composer Wallingford Riegger.
Wallingford Riegger was bom in Georgia on April 29, 1885. From 1933 to 1941, Riegger
wrote a good deal of music for modem dance. Among those for whom Riegger wrote
were Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Jose Limon, and Hanya Holm.
It is interesting to note what Doris Humphrey wrote:
During the recent insurgence of art as conflict, I felt that much of the work produced was completely negative and that some affirmation should be made. My trilogy, composed of New Dance. With Mv Red Fires, and Theatre Piece, was conceived under such circumstances as these. In the face of a dance world largely proclaiming, ‘This is not!,’ I would say, ‘This is!’ The first work, New Dance, was concerned with social relationships, with a modem brotherhood of man.27
New Dance was created in two sections. The dance is not often done in its entirety
today, and it is the second section, not the first, that is usually performed. This is probably
27 Palmer, Winthrop. Theatrical Dancing in America: The Development of the Ballet from 1900. (New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1978), 79.
16
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because it is a manageable length of about seven minutes and has been notated. The first
twenty-five minute section contained twelve dancers. In the first section of New Dance.
the opening image is of a couple who stand apart from the group. All the other dancers
stand on a series of boxes on each side of the stage. The couple dance together in unison
movement; then the man leaves and the woman stays. One by one the other women leave
the boxes, and cross the stage on a diagonal. They travel with steps that consist of fall and
rebound, accentuated by the torso dropping to the side. The soloist opens her upper body,
leans backward, and finally sinks into an arching fall. One by one the dancers follow her
until the whole group is participating in the fall. Then, they whirl for a minute and go off
stage. Four men, who are standing at the comers of the stage, rush diagonally at each
other in pairs, leaping as they meet in the center. After several crossings, they dance a
series of attitudes and turns. They continue with vigorous strides and balances turning
toward the center, finally ending on the boxes. The woman leader advances to the center,
and the rest of the dancers join. Finally, all the dancers are on the stage circling vigorously,
forming a wheel pattern; the women circle in the center and the men form an outside
circle by running around them. The phrase used by the leader is repeated and adopted by
the whole group. The couple is emphasized in the beginning, but then the emphasis turns
to the group, conveying a sense of power and unity.
The second section of the dance is called “Variations and Conclusion.” As this
section begins, the audience sees a stage with different size boxes arranged on the stage,
and the dancers paired-off on the side of the stage, all in a tight group. When the music
starts the dancers move in a circle around the boxes in a pattern of runs and leaps, with the
couples’ arms around each others’ waists. The image we get immediately is one of joining
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forces, of moving together and moving ahead; the unison image is strong here as it will be
at different points in the dance, repeated in a variety of ways.
Soon we see the dancers on the boxes at different levels; this is a powerful
statement of a group of individuals who each literally stand on their own, but are also part
of the larger group. As “Variations and Conclusion” progresses, the dancers come off the
boxes in solos, duets, and trios, moving with strength and determination, thrusting through
space. There is great clarity to the development of the material. We see how the
movement themes are manipulated throughout the dance; the various phrases away from
the boxes play with original material, but in very individual ways. The thematic material
is characterized by a fully developed use of fall and recovery, with challenging releases to
gravity defying the ability to rebound, but then we see the dancer flying upward with full
involvement of the whole body.
The dance ends with two of the dancers off the boxes in a turning phrase, which is
punctuated with a release to the side strongly accented with hands and torso; the rest of
the group is on the boxes and is also doing this phrase. The last thing we see as the dance
finishes is the group strongly moving in unison. Humphrey wrote that New Dance
“represents the world where each person has a clear and harmonious relationship to his
fellow beings.”28
The second piece to be analyzed in the second phrase of Humphrey’s career is
With Mv Red Fires. This dance premiered at Bennington College on August 13. 1936,
with music again composed by Wallingford Riegger. Doris Humphrey created this large
28 Cohen, 137.
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work for forty-four dancers. Charles Weidman and Katherine Litz were the lovers and
Humphrey was the Matriarch. In the film of this dance, twenty-three dancers performed,
and other recent reconstructions have all used fewer than the original number of forty-four
dancers.
In this dance, there are three levels of platforms upstage, and two boxes on the
side of the stage. In the first part, the dancers surge across the platforms, then divide in
constantly changing subunits. Occasionally they come together in unison. Soon all the
dancers exit, leaving one couple on stage.
We then see the Matriarch, who represents a repressive force in society. Appearing
from behind a tall box, she leans out and beckons to the girl, who then goes behind the
box. The young man immediately calls the girl back. The Matriarch gathers the group,
while standing on a tall box, thrashing her exaggeratedly long skirt with angry gestures.
The couple are physically beaten, dragged, and thrown on the ground by some of the
dancers, while other dancers begin a series of jumps with their arms flung up. The other
dancers leave, and slowly the couple revives, rising to their feet and at the same time
ascending the steps, moving in a circle, retaining clasped arms. The dance ends with their
elated pose at the top.
With Mv Red Fires is the story of conflict between romantic and possessive love.
The young couple is thwarted in their pursuit of happiness but persevere to a final
moment of hope at the close of the dance. In With Mv Red Fires. Humphrey shows the
jealous love of a matriarch against the longings of young lovers. In her choreography,
Humphrey tried to show some ambivalence; love and hate, order and disorder, conflict
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and harmony. Humphrey derived the title from William Blake’s Jerusalem 11: “For the
divine appearance is brotherhood, but I am love elevate into the region of brotherhood
with red fires.”29 The Matriarch’s gesture shows strong emotion; at one point, she places
her hands on her face, thrusts her head back and forth, and undulates her whole body,
expressing sadness. Another gesture portrayed is anger as she whips her long skirt to the
floor.
The third piece to be analyzed for the period of 1935-1944 is Passacaglia. The
piece premiered at Bennington College on August 5, 1938, and was composed to Johann
Sebastian Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor. Passacaglia is an abstraction to
Bach’s dramatic overtones.
In the musical structure, the passacaglia in this piece by Bach is a series of
variations on a ground bass. There are seven groups of three variations; the passacaglia is
twenty-one variations on a motif that is repeated over and over.
The concurrence is most obvious from the solo parts. The soloists are seen to clarify the clustering of the musical theme. Rising or lowering patterns of motion visualize the pitch contour within the two-bar units (the deep structure contour formed by long, stressed notes in the theme). The repetition of the dance units reflects musical repetition, and the unusual forcefulness of the musical statement (played fortissimo by brass and lower woodwind) encourages the listener to perceive the relationship.30
“Humphrey created a dance structure to match the thematic interweaving and
complexities of Bach, but she did not attempt to mirror the music theme for theme,
29 Plamer, 81. j0 Jordan, Stephanie. The Musical Key to Dance Reconstruction. (New Brunswick, NJ, 1993), 187.
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entrance for entrance, beat for beat. Like music, the dance makes an architectonic
statement.”31
In this choreography, Humphrey shows a harmonious group that gives rise to
contrasting individual and small group statements. This dance can be seen as a relative of
New Dance. This dance shows how the group of individually contributing members can
evolve into a unified entity. The piece starts with the dancers standing with their hands
joined, while forming triangles with their arms over their heads; they are on platforms at
various levels. Dancers emerge individually from the group, they move in canon, and then
they have solos, duets, trios, and small groups as well as large groups working in unison.
In this period, there are important developments in Humphrey’s work that are
worth noting. She explores the way large groups work, entering further into the complex
world of the choreographic components of time, space, and force. She left behind the
world of solos and duets, fascinated by the possibilities of more complex interactions w ith
a greater number of dancers, and a more sophisticated abstraction of her ideas about
community, generational interactions, and the relationship of music to dance.
In New Dance. Humphrey courageously deals with the large philosophical idea of
people coming together in a community of sharing and beliefs. While allowing for
individuals to emerge making strong and powerful statements, she always relates them
back to the larger group and to the comfort and security of community. The piece begins
with a complex rhythmic theme, stated by the whole group moving in a circle in unison.
As the piece progresses, she divides the group into different configurations, and also has
31 Siegel, Marcia B. The Shapes of Change: Images of American Dance. (Houghton Mifflin Company Boston, 1979), 91.
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the individual moving in counterpoint and unison with the group. The patterns are striking
and shifting and show Humphrey arriving at mastery of her craft. The visual images she
creates are constantly challenging and always engaging.
In With Mv Red Fires. Humphrey originally worked with a huge group of forty-
four dancers. She creates a large number of different groupings, and makes her theme
move easily from one group to the other, while creating brilliant fragmentation and
repetition of parts of the thematic material. In this piece her ideas about love,
independence, control and freedom all play into the way she deals with the brilliant group
configurations. In Passacaglia. Humphrey returns to some of the ideas of music
visualization she developed through her work with St. Denis and early in her
choreographic career. But in this large group piece, she has groups of dancers relate to the
music in more subtle and complex configurations. The essential structure of the music is
there, but the groups create their own patterns of space and time, which create
contrapuntal relationships.
During this period, Humphrey added an interesting dimension to her work in terms
of the boxes she used as sets. In New Dance and With Mv Red Fires, boxes of different
sizes become an integral part of the theme and texture of the dance. In addition to the
spatial patterns created by the dancers, Humphrey creates spatial patterns with the boxes
in the way she places them on the stage and on top of one another. She also heightens the
drama of the movements by having the dancers on so many different levels.
In New Dance, the boxes accent the theme of the individual as related to the
group. Individual dancers emerged from different boxes to perform their solos, and then
return to the group on the different boxes to create unison phrases. By placing the
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different dancers on the different levels, but having them move together, the statement
about the importance of individuality but the equal or greater importance of community
becomes very strong and powerful.
In With Mv Red Fires. Humphrey increases the power of her statement about the
possessiveness of maternal love with the use of the matriarch on a very tail box. The
vulnerability and youth of the couple in love is also made stronger through Humphrey's
choices about where she places them on the different level boxes.
In the three dances chosen for analysis in the period 193S-1944, it is clear that
Humphrey has achieved masterful and complex use of movement and structure. By this
time she has defined her movement vocabulary and the way she puts movement together
into phrases. She has achieved a distinct and unique way of expressing herself in dance,
one which unmistakably carries her signature. We see the use of fall and recovery
translated into glorious turns, drops, leaps, and swirls defined by intricate and dynamic
rhythmic patterns. We see the angular and pulsing arms, the breath in the use of torso,
head, and legs, and the contrasts of sharp and soft that create an intimate conversation
within the bodies of the dancers.
Humphrey shows us how she develops her movement ideas from simpler
explorations in the previous periods. She also shows us how she has developed her craft;
each movement theme is rich with subtlety but extremely clear. The themes are
manipulated brilliantly through fascinating repetitions, fragmentations and changing
rhythms. Her use of the music is masterful in these pieces. She thoroughly understands the
structure o f each piece of music, and this allows her to create her own structures to
exactly coincide, exist on a parallel strain, or go against the music.
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It is important to remember that Humphrey was still performing during this period,
and she had achieved some degree of stability in terms of her work as teacher and
choreographer. The work of these years reflects a significant maturation of an artist who
has taken the time to grow and develop, to explore and experiment, and finally to arrive at
a form of expression that is unique.
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SELECTED CHOREOGRAPHY: 1945-1958
Three works will be analyzed that Humphrey created during the last period of her
life; Day on Earth (1947). Night Spell (19511. and Dawn in New York (1956).
Day on Earth premiered on May 10, 1947, at Beaver Country Day School,
Brookline, Massachusetts. The music for the piece is Piano Sonata by Aaron Copland. In
this dance, Humphrey has a man as the central figure, passing through the various cycles
of life: love, marriage, children, work, and death. “He tills the soil, has an interlude with a
young girl, and takes a wife. At the end, man, wife and lover lie down symbolically
together, presided over by the figure of the child, who is the inheritor of their joy and
sorrow.’,:>2 In this dance, there are four characters and Humphrey shows an abstract
character study of a man who works, two women he loves, and the child in his life. John
Martin said, “It is almost as if she had looked from some other planet and seen things
telescoped into simple, arduous pattern of dignity and beauty.’03
In her choreography, Humphrey was concerned with the progress of life, the
family, and death. This dance was designed to use a large box and a piece of cloth.
Throughout the dance, the man abstracts working gestures such as plowing, planting, and
32 Kress, Penny Pruitt. “The Legacy of Jose Limon.” (Thesis, American University, 1982), 19. 33 Cohen, 193.
25
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harvesting. The young woman comes to him, and their duet looks like play, but they never
quite mesh. With another woman, the man builds an existence that balances family time
and work. Soon the child leaves; the man and woman continue their own life. The woman
folds up a large cloth that once covered the child, placing it on a box, and putting it down.
In this section, the woman becomes reconciled to the child leaving the home. The man
moves down the diagonal as at the beginning, and he shows working gestures as he seeks
refuge in work from the child’s departure. The first woman and the child later return to
the stage. There is a procession and a ritual transfer of generations: the adults lie down on
the floor and cover themselves with the cloth, as the child takes her place on the box.34
Day on Earth has emotional power without being blatantly emotional. The impact
depends on the buildup of all the components and the final statement about continuity and
love. Each of the dancers has specific movement themes, which identify their basic
characteristics. The man has large sweeping and weighted working movements. The
young woman who represents early love, unburdened by responsibilities, moves with
speed, lighteness and abandon. The woman who becomes the wife moves with greater
intensity and broader movements. The child moves initially with an innocent freedom,
and then moves with more weight and awareness, relating to each parent and to their
future responsibilities and independence.
This is a dance of great depth and beauty, where we see a mature Humphrey
looking back at life and at her own experiences in a way that provides universality. She
understands the flirtation of youth and provides movements that capture this abandon. She
j4 Siegel, Days on Earth. 240.
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explores a man becoming aware of his responsibilities and his desire to have a family and
give and take within this context. We see the child learn and grow and share, and finally
we see life passed on to the next generation. The Copland music provides a partnership
with the dance, with its rich and complex rhythms and melodies. Humphrey’s use of the
music is brilliant. We see her create the dance as an independent entity, which could in
fact exist on its own with its development of relationships and its movement phrases and
dynamics. But the dance does not exist on its own; it is in partnership with Copland’s
music, and the two together provide an incredibly rich texture of visual and emotional
experience for the viewer.
The second piece to be analyzed, Night Spell, premiered at Connecticut College,
August 16, 1951. Originally this dance was called Quartet, and the music was String
Quartet no. 1 by Priaulx Rainier. The original dancers were Jose Limon, Lucas Hoving,
Betty Jones, and Ruth Currier. Jose Limon played the central role of a dreamer, and three
dancers were the forms conjured up in his dream. The dance is about a dreamer and the
creatures of his fantasy. The note in the program, “The one asleep cries out: What is in me.
dark-illumine”3S is the clue to the dream fantasy. This dance is related in theme to
Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach, especially the last stanza:
Ah, love, let us be true To one another for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
35 Ibid., 258.
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Where ignorant armies clash by night.36
In Night Spell, there is a simple box-like bench downstage, and Jose Limon
dances the first movement as a solo. He curls and writhes in torment, and the three dream
creatures enter, wrapped in a large cloth. Two of these creatures are women, and one is a
man. Limon dances a duet with one of the woman dream creatures and they become
almost one. “This dance begins antiphonally as a series of exclamations and responses,
and as it unfolds the two characters from different worlds gradually find a common
rhythm .”37
The other dream creatures return with forceful wrenching jumps and turns and try
to recapture their companion. The dreamer succeeds in breaking the creatures’ power and
he sends them away; he then embraces the creature with whom he had the duet. Marcia
Siegel has noted that Doris Humphrey originally had another ending for the dance, where
the dream woman slipped out of Limon’s embrace, but this image was dropped in favor of
the more optimistic one.
The last piece to be analyzed is Dawn in New York, and it was premiered on
April 27,1956. The music for this dance was composed by Hunter Johnson in 1935, as a
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. This piece is eighteen minutes long, and is a large
group piece about the triumph of goodness and hope over evil and despair. In this dance,
two poems by Garcia Lorca provided inspiration for the work: In The Dawn Lorca wrote:
“The New York dawn has four columns of mud and a hurricane of black doves...The
36 Ibid.. 258. 37 Ibid., 260.
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dawn comes and no one receives it in his mouth...They know they are going to the mud
of figures and laws, to artless games, to fruitless sweat.” In Ballad of the Little Square
Lorca wrote: “What signs of spring do you hold in your hand? A rose of blood and a
white lily."38
Dawn in New York includes a young man, a girl called “sign of spring," dancers
called “black doves," and dancers called “workers." In the beginning of the dance.
Humphrey creates tension by having two dancers, a young man and a young girl, stay
immobile while the group dances. The group of dancers are dressed in black, representing
black doves. They dig their feet into the ground with a twist of bent legs, and leap through
space as if they were birds.
The black doves disappear as the young girl awakens on stage left. The girl
symbolizes spring, and she wears a long white dress and holds a rose. She stretches and
rises moving downstage, and she holds the rose in her outstretched hand, gently sweeping
it across her body. The young man rolls out from stage right and goes to the girl on his
knees with his hands covering his heart. They begin their duet. The image of the girl
carrying the rose is meant to show her love for the young man. Their duet is stopped by
the grim looking workers, who rise slowly from behind the bridge. Black doves reappear
and again irritate the workers who try to keep the lovers separated. The black doves and
workers freeze, and the young man and the girl gaze at each other across the stage and
move slowly towards each other. In the final scene, they come together, and the young
man lifts the girl high in the air and she hangs over his shoulder. All the dancers back
38 Cook, Ray. “Filling in the Gaps: Dawn in New York-Fantasy and Fugue." Choreography and Dance 4, pt.4, 1998, 77.
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away as the couple spins center stage.
After Humphrey retired as a performer, she gave up her company. Humphrey
continued her choreographic work as artistic director for Jose Limon Company. During
this period, Humphrey choreographed emotional works such as Dav on Earth. Night Spell,
and Dawn in New York. In these works, she brought a powerful, mature perspective to
bear on important aspects of life: love, hate, hope, fear, and death. She had experimented
with emotional themes in her previous period with dances such as With Mv Red Fires.
Now, she was ready to address the larger issues o f life from a different perspective. In the
works of the period 1945-1958, we have the point of view of an artist who has lived a full
and rich life, and who has a mature perspective.
In the choreography for With Mv Red Fires. Humphrey is very involved in the
conflict between young love and the dominating sense of control from an older,
matriarchal figure. In Dav on Earth, life has been lived, love has been savored, a child has
been bom, and a new perspective has been arrived at. There is a clear sense that life has
many emotional facets, and we pass through many stages of life, not just one. In Dav on
Earth, life presents traumas and crises at each stage, but in the end there is harmony and
acceptance.
In Night Spell, there is a rich world of love and fantasy, of choices that are
difficult but must be made, of conflict that is inevitable, but of resolution that is equally
inevitable. Dreams in this dance have power and hope, and there is a sense that life can
fulfill the promise it brings when we are young, and that dreams often surprise us,
challenge us, and finally may reward us. The world of conflict here has a mysterious,
almost glamorous aura. The world conflict in With Mv Red Fires has a darker, unresolved
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aura. By 1951, Humphrey had lived a long and complex life: she had married, had a child,
and struggled with being an artist, a wife, a mother, a performer, and a teacher.39 Out of
this emerged a sense that our desires challenge and disturb us, but also join us in our
journey towards realization.
In Dawn in New York, we once again have a mature perspective on numerous
obstacles that face the individual and the artist, and the triumph over adversity that can be
achieved in pursuit of creative ideals. This is perhaps the most complex and ambiguous of
Humphrey’s later pieces. It is interesting that it was choreographed not long before she
died and during the period when she experienced serious physical pain and setbacks. The
end of the dance provides the key to the work. After many hostile encounters and attempts
to keep the lovers separate, the young couple comes together, and the meaning for
Humphrey of Lorca’s lines about “a rose of blood and a white lily” becomes clear. Having
lived through traumas, both artistic and personal. Humphrey is removed from the
immediate and constant crises of life, and is prepared to look beyond for fulfillment and
hope.
39 Doris Humphrey married Charles Francis Woodford in 1932 and had a son, Charles Humphrey Woodford, who was bom on July 8, 1933.
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CONCLUSION
Doris Humphrey is one of the major American choreographers of the twentieth
century. She began teaching, choreographing and performing as a young woman in
Illinois, then traveled cross-country to study with Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. She
became one of their star performers: she worked most closely with St. Denis,
choreographing for her company collaboratively and on her own. and also continued
teaching.
This thesis examines Humphrey's work and growth as choreographer after she
formed her own company in 1928. with Charles Weidman. She performed until 1944. and
in 1946 became Artistic Director of the Jose Limon Company, for whom she produced
major works until her death in 1958. Humphrey also became a major force in the Dance
Division of the Juilliard School of Music, which began its program in 1951. She taught
composition and choreographed for the Juilliard Dance Ensemble.
The works of Humphrey have been studied by dividing them into three periods.
During the first period, 1928-1934, we can see that Humphrey is beginning to move away
from the themes and movement vocabulary of Denishawn. She also is beginning to
explore her own way of moving and her own philosophy of dance; for Humphrey the core
becomes the excitement, danger and challenge of having the body give in to gravity
almost fully, but recover and rebound at the last moment. She called this idea fall and
recovery and made it the basis for the movements she created and the phrases she
32
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developed. It is also during this period that Humphrey moves away from music
visualization and begins to explore sound created for dance, as opposed to only working
with dance created for music.
During the next period discussed in this thesis, 1935-1944, we begin to see greater
complexity in several areas: Humphrey’s use of movement and movement phrases: her
use of music; her choreographic structure; and her use of groups and spatial
configurations. In addition, there is the beginning of emotional abstraction and themes
that deal with issues of relationships. The movements in all the pieces from this period
have Humphrey’s personal stamp; there is constant use of fall and recovery, and there is a
clearly identifiable use of torso, arms, hands, legs, feet, and spatial pattern. The torso
bends to the side and folds to the front, the arms form angular shapes and move boldly out
from the body, the legs sweep to the side and slice the air, the feet point sharply and flex
clearly, and the dancers move on long diagonals and sharp lines. The rhythms are
complex and the music is a partner to the dance; the movements are shaped by their own
rhythms, which relate through phrasing and structure to the music.
In the final period, 1945-1958, Humphrey does not create new movement
structures or ideas. We are familiar with the movement vocabulary she has created in
previous years, and we recognize and respect it. The spatial patterns are also recognizable:
the way in which dancers weave in and out of each other and cut through space. What is
important in this last period of her choreography and life is the way in which Humphrey
began to work with deeply emotional material.
In Dav on Earth. Humphrey shows man’s journey through life while highlighting
various relationships, involving his first love and his family. In Night Spell, the dreamer
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struggles with his fantasy and keeps the best of it: love. In Dawn in New York. Humphrey
deals with large groups of dancers, and shows her ideas about love. hope, goodness, and
evil. In this dance, she expresses the idea that hope can triumph over despair, the couple is
obstructed in their pursuit of happiness, but they persist until they ultimately reach their
goal of being together.
Doris Humphrey was a choreographer who had a striking and original use of
movement and a brilliant sense of craft. She understood in a very deep way the
relationship between music and movement. In her choreography, she exhibited a range
from pure movement to dances that deal with the most profound of human relationships
and feelings.
No choreographer or artist has a straight trajectory in their development. Artists
return to ideas and ways of working in their later years that they had explored earlier.
Thus Humphrey always retained a strong interest in pure movement, movement for its
own sake. However, it is clear that as she progressed in her life and work, the dances that
she created reflected more of her inner struggles and observations about life. She sought
to reflect, in her dances, on the vagaries of love and dreams, on the balance between life
and work.
Humphrey’s movement vocabulary developed during the first two decades of her
work and artistic explorations. By the late 1930s. her voice was her own. and her ideas of
fail and recovery and the arc between two deaths had been fully translated into movement
phrases that clearly had her signature. Her phrases were brilliant in their use of dynamics
and rhythm, and her use of groups created clear and exciting spatial configurations.
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Some choreographers create works that are important in their lifetime, and then
seem dated and perhaps of less value as time goes on. The works of Doris Humphrey are
as fresh and vital today as they were when she created them. Works such as The Shakers.
Dav on Earth. New Dance are as powerful today as they were many years ago. They are
the works of a master artist, and they speak to us in a way that is timeless.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BIBLIOGRAPHY
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______. “Filling in the Gaps: Dawn in New York-Fantasy and Fugue.” Choreography and Dance 4, pt.4 (1998): 75-92.
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______. The Art of Making Dances. New York: Grove Press Inc., 1959.
______. “A Home for Humphrey-Weidman." Dance Observer 7. no.l 1 (Nov 1940): 124-125.
______. “Choreographers are Special People.” Dance Magazine. June 1959. 42-44.
______. “Doris Humphrey Answers the Critics.” Dance and Dancers. Mar 1959,21.
______. Doris Humphrev: The Collected Works, v. 1, New York: Dance Notation Bureau Press, 1978.
. Doris Humphrev: The Collected Works, v.2, New York: Dance Notation Bureau Press, 1992.
. “Doris Humphrev Speaks...” Dance Observer 29. no.3 (1962): 37-40.
. “Interpreter or Creator?” Dance Magazine. Jan 1929,35.
. “My Approach to the Modem Dance.” Dance: A Basic Educational Technique. Ed. Frederick Rand Rogers. New York: MacMillan Company. 1941.
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______. “The Dance American Style.” Theatre Arts 25, no. 10 (1941): 113- 114.
______. “The Stage Space.” Dance Magazine. July 1959, 43-45.
______. “Reflections on the Humphrey-Weidman Season.” Dance Observer 8. no.6 (1941): 76-77.
Hutera, Donald and Robertson, Allen. The Dance Handbook. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1988.
Jordan, Stephanie. The Music Key to Dance Reconstruction. New Brunswick, NJ, 1992.
King, Eleanor. “The Influence of Doris Humphrey.” Focus on Dance V (1969): 6-9.
______. Transformations: The Humphrey-Weidman Era. Brooklyn: Dance Horizons, 1978
Koner, Pauline. “Working with Doris Humphrey.” Dance Chronicle 7, no.3 (1984): 235-278.
Kriegsman, Sali Ann. Modem dance in America: The Bennington Years. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1981.
Lloyd, Margaret. “Doris Humphrey: Yesterday and Today.” Dance Magazine. Nov 1954, 34-41.
Love, Paul. “Doris Humphrey.” Dance Observer 1, no.5 (1934): 49, 53.
Martin, John. “Achievement: The Unique Success of Doris Humphrey in Ensemble Building-New Programs.” New York Times. 7 April 1929, 8X.
______. “Epic Figure: Doris Humphrey Helped Shape an Art from First Impulses to Maturity.” New York Times. 11 Jan 1959, 12X.
______. “The Humphrey Technique.” New York Times. 3 Jan 1960, 12X.
Maynard, Olga. American Modem Dancers: The Pioneers. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1965.
Mazo, Joseph H. Prime Movers: The Makers of Modem Dance in America. William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York, 1977.
McDonagh, Don. The Complete Guide to Modem Dance. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1976.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 39
Palmer. Stuart. “Doris Humphrey: Mistress of the Group.” Dance Magazine. June 1931. 31.
Palmer, Winthrop. Theatrical Dancing in America: The Development of the Ballet from 1900. New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1978.
Prevots, Naima. Dancing in the Sun: Hollywood Choreographers 1915-1937. UMI Research Press, University Microfilms, Inc., 1987.
Rave, Zelia and Joan Davis. “The Art of Doris Humphrey: An Appreciation.” The Dancing Times [London] ns 254 (1931): 143-i45.
Sab in, Robert. “Doris Humphrey’s Decade.” Dance Observer (Aue-Sept 1941): 93.
Sherman, Jane. “Doris and Charles and Pauline Fifty Years Ago.” Dance Magazine. Oct 1978, 56-62.
Siegel, Marcia B. Days on Earth: The Dance of Doris Humphrev. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987.
______. “Four Works by Doris Humphrey.” Ballet Review 7, no.l (1978-79): 16-36.
______. “Humphrey’s Legacy: Loss and Recall.” Dance Research Journal 28. no.2 (Fall 1996): 4-9.
______. The Shapes of Change: Images of American Dance. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1979.
Spiesman, Mildred. “The Traditional School of 1890’s and the Entry of Colonel Francis W. Parker.” Dance Magazine. Nov 1950, 22.
Stodelle, Ernestine. The Dance Technique of Doris Humphrey and Its Creative Potential. Princeton, N. J: Princeton Book Co., 1978.
______. “Air for the G String.” Ballet Review 11, no.4 (1984): 86-87.
______. “Doris Humphrey Memorial Program: A Heritage Made Visible.” Dance Observer 27, no.2 (1960): 23-24.
______. “Humphrey-Weidman: Their Theory of Movement.” Focus on Dance II (1962): 18-21.
______. “With My Red Fires.” Dance Observer 28, no.l (1961): 5-6.
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Terry, Walter. The Dance in America. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1956.
Venable. Lucy. “Passacaglia 1938-1965.” Dance Scope (Spring 1965): 6-14.
Wentink. Andrew Mark. “The Doris Humphrey Collection: An Introduction and Guide.” New York: The New York Public Library (1974): 80-142.
______. “Being an Idealist: Doris Humphrey’s Letters Regarding her Break with Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn January to September 1928.” Dance Magazine. Feb 1976,48-50.
Youngerman, Suzanne. “The Translation of A Culture into Choreography: A Critical Appraisal of The Shakers through the Use of Laban Analysis.” Dance Research Annual 9 (1978): 93-110.
Dissertation & Thesis
Dils, Ann Hamilton. “Reconceptualizing Dance: Reconstructing the Dances of Doris Humphrey.” Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1993.
Hausler, Barbara. “Influences on Doris Humphrey’s Early Dance Technique.” M.F.A. Thesis, York University, 1992.
Kress, Penny Pruitt. “The Legacy of Jose Limon.” Thesis, American University, 1982.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.