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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 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number 1401037 Copyright 2000 by Lee, Changhee All rights reserved. ____UMI ______ (S3 UMI Microform 1401037 Copyright 2000 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. 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. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 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