World Events During This Time

Doris Humphrey reached the peak of her career during a time in which America was struggling in the Great Depression. She moved to New York City in 1928 and formed the Humphrey-Wiedman dance company. Like the rest of the United Sates, they didn’t have a lot of money. Therefore, they had to live together in the same apartment even after Humphrey was married and had a son. With money tight, they taught dance technique classes in order for them to make any income and put on performances.

With teaching these classes came teaching Humphrey’s technique of fall and recovery. Although this technique is tied to our psyche and the psychology book she read. It also ties to this time of the Great Depression in our world. As Jennifer Dunning wrote in the New York Times, Humphrey "abstracted the soul … in the central concept of her choreography. Falling, the recovery from a fall and the body's arc between were for her an expression of the fundamental tension and precarious balance between failure and triumph that we struggle to maintain throughout our lives." It can be seen then, that this technique was related to what was going on in the world at this time as people were struggling to make it.

Although many dancers were struggling during this time, the Humphrey-Weidman company was successful during the Great Depression. They toured America and invented new types and styles of dance movement. These new dances weren’t based on old tales, but incorporated current events and concerns of the time.