Doris Humphrey was a dancer and choreographer who has influenced modern dance today. Humphrey was born on October 17, 1895 and was then raised in Oak Park, Illinois to a family that was struggling financially. Although struggling, her family still found funds in which they were able to send her to school to receive an excellent, progressive education. It was a Francis W. Parker School in Chicago, IL, where Humphrey was first exposed to the styles of folk and interpretive dance.
As a struggling family, her mother taught piano lessons for income while her father ran a residence home for vaudeville performers. As a child, Humphrey took piano, ballet, and ballroom dance and at the young age of 15 began to teach ballet and interpretive dance. After Humphrey graduated high school, and her father lost his job, Humphrey was expected to be the family provider. She established a school in which she taught dance classes while her mother was the business manager and accompanist. This wasn't satisfying for Humphrey, she wanted more. After 4 years, the school was profitable enough for the family, and Humphrey was able to leave Illinois for Los Angeles to pursue her dreams of a professional dancing career.
In 1917, Humphrey enrolled at the Denishawn School, run by dance legends, Ruth St. Denis and her husband, Ted Shawn. It was there that Ruth St. Denis told Humphrey that she was born to be a dancer, not a teacher. She then became one of the schools lead dancers, teaching assistants, and began to choreograph. After 7 years at the school, Humphrey became dissatisfied with the theatricality of the dancing and imagined a new style of dance which was more expressive, and catered to a humans emotion.
In 1928, Humphrey left the Denishawn School and left for New York City where she lived with fellow former Denishawn dancers, Charles Weidman and Pauline Lawrence. They were later joined in their living headquarters by Humphrey's husband, Charles Francis Woodford in 1932, and later by their son as well. Eventually, another Denishawn alumnus joined the group, and they established the Humphrey - Weidman Dance Company. Through this company, Humphrey began developing her own theory of dance. This included her early works of Water Study (1928) and Life of the Bee (1929). Her new theory of dance was inspired by the idea that the emotions dictated movements or as she would say her dances were created "from the inside outside". At times Humphrey would choreograph in silence and then add music later as her emotions would then guide her movement.
Doris Humphrey is best known for her dance theory, "fall and recovery". This was the foundation of her teaching method and her choreography. According to Humphrey, underlying was the German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche's idea about the split in the human psyche between each person's Apollonian side (rational, intellectual) and our Dionysian side (chaotic, emotional). The true essence of the modern dance was the movement that happened in between these extremes, which Humphrey labeled "the arc between two deaths." Her work often required dancers to make motions that put themselves off-balance and then to use the resulting momentum to restore control over their bodies.
Not only is Doris Humphrey known for her theory, but she is also known for her use of music. Because she was musically trained every since she was young, she approached dance and music differently than most other choreographers. As stated before, she would often choreograph and later add the music. Many times she made her own music scores.
I can definitely relate the idea Humphrey's fall and recovery technique to my dancing, as well, as my everyday life. Everyday we are forced to take action, some decisions rational, some emotional. Then in the aftermath we are in need of recovering from the choices we make in some way. I experience these ups and downs in my life as well. Ed Burgess especially taught me this relation between dance and daily life in his classes here at the UWM through his use of the Humphrey technique in phrases in class.
ReplyDeleteI find the way she approached music in her dances to be very interesting. I would think that since she was so trained in music, that she would pick the music beforehand because that was what was familiar to her. Instead, she chose music after movement which I think allowed her to create movement as she says "from the inside outside."
-written by Allie Rick
I agree that the idea of the fall and recovery can most definitely be applied in our everyday lives as well. I think that this is what makes her technique so enjoyable for some people, as they can easily relate their own experiences through their movement.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that it is interesting that she didn't incorporate the music more with her choreography as she often just added it later. I believe this was her way of finding the true human emotions and finding movement through those. Music automatically makes us move in a certain way. However, I believe that sometimes providing music first may have been an interesting way to bring out different movements from her dancers too.