Background
Humphrey was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on October 17, 1895. She was the daughter of Horace Buckingham Humphrey, a compositor and hotel manager, and Julia Ellen Wells.
( This landmark book about Doris Humphrey, one of the mos...)
This landmark book about Doris Humphrey, one of the most influential pioneers in the development of modern dance, tells of her struggles and triumphs in exploring new forms of dance; of Humphrey's break with Denishawn to establish her company with Charles Weidman; of creating a new dance technique which has been seminal to the training of modern dancers; of choreographing in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s; and of creating a choreographic aesthetic that has been a primary influence on subsequent generations of dancemakers.
https://www.amazon.com/Doris-Humphrey-Artist-First/dp/0871272016?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0871272016
(1978, hardcover edition, Dance Notation Bureau, NY. Volum...)
1978, hardcover edition, Dance Notation Bureau, NY. Volume 1 ONLY. 302 pages. Includes an appreciation by Charles Woodford, a brief bio of Doris Humphrey, plus 3 seminal works, including: WATER STUDY / SHAKERS / PARTITA V. Unique printed / illustrated notes on choreography throughout.
https://www.amazon.com/Doris-Humphrey-Collected-Works-1/dp/0932582001?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0932582001
( Written just before the author's death in 1958, this bo...)
Written just before the author's death in 1958, this book is an autobiography in art, a gathering of experiences in performance, and a lucid and practical source book on choreography.
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Making-Dances-Doris-Humphrey/dp/0871271583?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0871271583
Humphrey was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on October 17, 1895. She was the daughter of Horace Buckingham Humphrey, a compositor and hotel manager, and Julia Ellen Wells.
She began to study folk and gymnastic dance at the age of eight. At the suggestion of Mary Wood Hinman, her first dance teacher, Humphrey traveled to Los Angeles in 1917 to study at the Denishawn School, newly founded by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. The experience gained there was instrumental in Humphrey's decision to become a professional dancer.
In 1913 she made her first professional appearance under the auspices of the Sante Fe Railroad, touring railwaymen's clubs throughout the Midwest, accompanied by her mother. She began to dance in the Denishawn School productions in 1918, and for the next ten years danced regularly in Denishawn vaudeville and concert tours, including a long tour of the Far East (1925 - 1926).
A turning point in Humphrey's career followed the company's return from this tour. It stemmed from the weariness induced by a cross-country engagement that brought the company to New York City in a series of one-night stands. Plans were announced for a Greater Denishawn School, to be established in New York. But Humphrey had become increasingly dissatisfied with what she considered "decorative" exotic dance and was unwilling to become a cog in the Greater Denishawn superstructure. Accordingly, when the company was engaged for a tour with the Ziegfeld Follies in 1927, she, together with fellow Denishawn dancers Charles Weidman and Pauline Lawrence, elected to remain in New York to supervise the school.
While the company was away, Humphrey presented several concerts of her own work, which differed radically from Denishawn dance in its stark abstraction. Shawn himself voiced the most vigorous opposition to it. Unwilling to subordinate private expression to the Denishawn company, Humphrey, Weidman, and Lawrence left in the autumn of 1928 to establish their own studio and ensemble. Humphrey's independence was hampered by financial difficulties resulting from the stock market crash the following year and the ensuing economic depression. Teaching, with its substantial demands, became a necessity in order to support her creative activity. Nevertheless, she choreographed such important works as Water Study (1928) and Life of the Bee (1929), which reflected her strongly analytical approach to movement. At this time she began to formulate a distinctive approach to dance technique, based on the disequilibrium attendant upon moving from a state of repose and the effort required to reestablish balance. Humphrey characterized it by the term "fall and recovery. "
With codirector Charles Weidman, Humphrey participated in the first series of cooperative programs – with Martha Graham and Helen Tamiris, among others – presented by the Dance Repertory Theater in 1930. Also that year Humphrey was choreographer for the Broadway production of Lysistrata and for the Metropolitan Opera's production of Sch(tm)nberg's Die glückliche Hand. She and Weidman danced with several symphony orchestras, and that summer the Philadelphia Orchestra presented the premiere of her La Valse at Robin Hood Dell. Two Ecstatic Themes (1931) was a manifesto of her creative style with its emphasis on heightened and theatricalized natural movement. For the next several years she demonstrated her interest in the formal aspects of dance construction in a series of works that included The Pleasures of Counterpoint (1932), Suite in F (1933), and The Pleasures of Counterpoint No. 2 and No. 3 (1934).
When the Bennington College School of the Dance was established in 1934, Humphrey became a member of the faculty. The summer program became a focal point of modern dance through the 1930's, and many of her major works were presented during the concluding festival week. By 1936 Humphrey had completed her trilogy New Dance, comprising New Dance, Theater Piece, and With My Red Fires. In the last she created a masterly character role for herself as the dominating matriarch who rules the destinies of a young couple with cruel malevolence. Her powers were at flood tide, as she began to explore the themes of conflict and resolution that were to dominate her later work.
With Martha Graham, Humphrey represented the emerging American modern dance – in the eyes of observers they were considered to be "fire and ice" – Graham's passionate intensity contrasting with Humphrey's analytical sense. The characterization was not entirely fair to either and, in Humphrey's case, did not take into account the broad humanistic approach that she brought to her work. By 1940 the Humphrey-Weidman Company had made two transcontinental tours and was able to establish a permanent studio and performance space in New York City. While touring that year, Humphrey sustained a hip injury in a fall that eventually led to her retirement as a performer in 1945.
In 1946 Humphrey became artistic adviser to José Limón's newly formed company, a position she held until her death. The company became her major artistic outlet and presented the first performances of Lament for Ignacio S nchez Mejías (1946), Day on Earth (1947), Night Spell (1951), and Ritmo Jondo (1953). The Bennington College Summer School of the Dance had been suspended during World War II; it was succeeded, in 1948, by the American Dance Festival at Connecticut College. Humphrey taught there regularly while choreographing for the Limón company during its summer residence. In the fall of 1951 she joined the staff of the newly formed dance department of the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. During these years a painful arthritic condition had forced Humphrey to use crutches, but she continued to teach and to choreograph. Hospitalized in 1955, she resumed work after her release and accompanied the Limón company on a European tour in 1957.
For several years she had been making notes for a book on choreographic method, and in 1958 she devoted all of her energy to completing it. The result, The Art of Making Dances (1959), was published posthumously and became a standard text. Her creative legacy is to be found in her technique of "fall and recovery" and in her humanistic social concern for humanity's struggle in an imperfect world. She died in New York City.
( This landmark book about Doris Humphrey, one of the mos...)
( Written just before the author's death in 1958, this bo...)
(1978, hardcover edition, Dance Notation Bureau, NY. Volum...)
Quotations:
“The Dancer believes that his art has something to say which cannot be expressed in words or in any other way than by dancing. ”
“There are movements which impinge upon the nerves with a strength that is incomparable, for movement has power to stir the senses and emotions, unique in itself. ”
On June 10, 1932, she married Charles Francis Woodford. They had one son.