I chose Doris Humphrey for this blog because I found her fall and recovery technique to be very interesting and I wanted to know what exactly it was that made her choose to move in this way. However, after researching her, one thing that has really stood out to me about her was the difference between instruction and education. Once I graduate, I don’t plan to join a dance company or even audition to be in a dance company. I want to simply share and teach dance with the community. Doris Humphrey was an excellent teacher because she did find the difference between instruction and education. First, she would tell the students what they had to do, and secondly she would let them develop their individuality and independence of thought, which was her aim. I think why this method of teaching really stands out to me is because this is how I was often taught at my dance studio by one of my favorite instructors. She would give us an idea or concept and then we had the opportunity to explore through movement. This is where I found myself to strive the most and is what I hope to continue to educate dance students with.
As for her work, after watching and reading up on many of her dances, the movement quality stands out to me. I move in a very similar way as she does in most of her work. I am a very fluid dancer and I enjoy the fall and recovery look in choreography. But her dance technique isn’t just what stands out to me, but the meaning behind a lot of her dancing appeals to me. Many of the pieces that she choreographed had to do with life events. I’ve always believed that when you don’t know what to dance about, you should dance about what you know. I feel as though this is similar to what she brought into her pieces.
With so many pieces of work and choreography that is still being taught, I believe that everyone who strives to choreograph should read her book, “The Art of Making Dances”. I think that we can all learn a lot through her own mistakes and ideas to better ourselves when creating our own dance pieces. Doris Humphrey is one of the choreographers that changed modern dance into what it is today. She took many steps in a different way than where dance was going. For example, she experimented with dance and music, or in some cases, silence. But she didn’t just stop there. She was one of the first choreographers to take modern dance to groups, and not only be performed by soloists. She also took a few steps towards abstraction, which then other choreographers then ran with. Overall, her technique is still taught today, her book is still read, and her choreography is still performed. When a legacy lives on like this for so long, it is clear that they had an impact on the society.
Hi Chelsea,
ReplyDeleteI think your goals of teaching and sharing dance with the community sound wonderful. I think I am about 50% of each, I want to perform upon graduation but also have a special place in my heart for teaching. I was trying to figure out exactly what you were saying at the end of your first paragraph. You wrote about a specific way of teaching, how they would give you an idea and you would explore it through movement. I am confused as to what the class setting was, if this was done in technique classes (like, doing a tendu combination with your upper body exploring the way an animal would move) or a creative movement/composition class (like they would give you an idea and you would build choreography/your own movement from it). I think it sounds like a neat idea, but it's unclear to me how it was carried out. I've been teaching dance for a few years now and am always searching for new tools to bring into the classroom to explore creativity with technicality. I agree that we should dance about what we know. Over the next few months I will be crafting my senior project and although I don't have a solid idea nailed down, I know the dance will relate to an important topic or experience in my life thus far. My freshman year I had to do a report on Doris for a Modern assignment. Reading through your blog was like a walk down memory lane from two years ago :) Doris was certainly an influential early modern dancer and choreographic pioneer. I've taken some Humprey-Limon classes and really enjoyed them. It is amazing how her work has stood the test of time. Great blog, love the purple, too!
-Carrie Martin
At the studio I danced at, we had many dance performances, and traveled to conventions for classes and competitions. Because we had so much choreography, a lot of it was actually created by the students (more so the older students, juniors and seniors in high school or college). A lot of the time we would be given a specific song or concept and have to work together in a small group and come up with choreography for the whole team. Sometimes our teacher would be with us, other times we were able to work on it ourselves. For example, my senior year, we did a small group lyrical dance to the song Frozen by Madonna. I worked with two other girls to come up with movement based on being a statue that comes to life. After we had some set choreography, we worked with the rest of the group and our teacher, and we labbed it to make it better. Through this method, I learned a lot of working as a team, and just simply exploring movement. It made the pieces that we performed so much more enjoyable as they were our own work and not just steps taught to us.
DeleteI think it is great that you are able to connect with Doris on a teaching level, seeing as that is what you primarily want to focus on upon graduating. I agree that Doris was a pioneer on all fronts in the dance world as a performer, choreographer, and teacher. Teaching might be the most important of the three in my opinion. With her book, The Art of Making Dances, and her specific teaching style, modern dance would not be the same as it is today without her knowledge and ability to pass on her teaching methods to others. I also was confused about the idea of giving a student an idea and then exploring it through movement because the description was rather vague. I would be interested to hear more about maybe a specific detailed example of how that could be carried out into a classroom.
ReplyDelete-Allie Rick