Water Study. Doris Humphrey Doris Humphrey

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1 Water Study Doris Humphrey 1928 Doris Humphrey Doris Humphrey was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1895 and grew up in Chicago. Her father operated a residence home for vaudeville performers called the Palace Hotel, and her mother offered piano lessons. As a girl, Humphrey studied piano, ballet, ballroom dance, Americanized Delsarte and Dalcroze's system of Eurythmics. A talented dancer, she began teaching ballet and interpretive dance to children when she was 15. During the next few years, Humphrey traveled the Santa Fe railroad line with a variety troupe, giving performances to railroad employees of her home- made aesthetic dances and Spanish numbers. When she returned home to Oak Park she began her own studio with her mother as accompaniest and business manager.

2 Humphrey Ties to Denishawn *Denishawn is a modern dance company that was established by Ruth St Denis and Ted Shawn. Dissatisfied with teaching in a small mid- Western town, Humphrey moved to California and joined Denishawn in As a favorite of Miss Ruth's, she was soon teaching classes and performing with the company in featured roles. Though Martha Graham was a fellow teacher and performer, Humphrey and Graham were not close. Humphrey made life- long artistic and personal relationships with other Denishawn colleagues, most notably Pauline Lawrence and Charles Weidman. Lawrence was a key advisor and company costume designer who remained close to Humphrey until her death in Charles Weidman was Humphrey's choreographic and dance partner in the 1920s and 1930s, and was himself a key figure in the development of the American modern dance. Humphrey began her choreographic career while at Denishawn, where she created, with St. Denis, famous pieces like "Soaring," set to the Schumman score of the same title, and "Sonata Pathetique," to the Beethoven score. The Humphrey/Weidman School In 1928, Humphrey and Charles Weidman left the Denishawn company to found their own school and company. Like Martha Graham, Humphrey was interested in moving away from the sentimentalism and romanticism of the Denishawn company toward a new dance vocabulary and style that was truly "modern." In a newspaper article from this period, she told a reporter that she and her students were "stimualted by our enthusiasm for some discoveries about movement, which had to do with ourselves as Americans- - not Europeans or American Indians or East Indians, which most of the Denishawn work consisted of- - but as young people of the twentieth century living in the United States." The Fall and Recovery Concept Like Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey was interested in the fundamental importance of tension and relaxation in the body, and used it as the foundation of her own system of movement principles. She called her version of the contraction and release of muscles and of the breath cycle "fall and recovery." Unlike Graham, who stressed the tension in the cycle, Humphrey located the height or apex of the continuum in the suspension of tension. As a result, her vocabulary was based on the notion that all movement patterns fall into three divisions : opposition; succession; and unison and that all movement characteristics fall into three divisions: sharp accent; sustained flow; and rest. She codified this system in her book The Art of Making Dances (1958).

3 Humphrey's Theory of Dance By 1931, the Humphrey and Weidman companies and their joint studio/school were firmly established in New York City. With Graham, Humphrey was considered by most critics to be a primary innovator of the new modern dance. Her theory of "fall and recovery"- - and the technique that sprang from it- - was the foundation of her teaching method and her choreography. Underlying it, according to Humphrey, 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." Doris Humphrey's Innovations: 1. Humphrey's codification of "Fall and Recovery" and the development of a movement vocabulary based on its rhythms stands today as an important tradition in the modern dance family tree. 2. Humphrey was responsible for the creation of the first concrete, fully articulated choreographic method for modern dance- makers. Humphrey's 1958 book, The Art of Making Dances, was the first book of its kind, and remains an important document for choreographers and dancers. 3. Humphrey pioneered the first full use of the ensemble as opposed to the solo figure in concert dancing. She was the first modern dancer to analyze and write about the choreographic process, thus separating the dancer from the dance. Water Study, choreographed in 1928, embodies Humphrey s elements of fall and recovery (the process of falling away from and returning to equilibrium), breath rhythm (phrasing and dynamics associated with breathing) and natural movement (movement derived from natural sources), which became the basis of her technique. Socio-historic context The 1920s or the Roaring 20s as it became known was an era of great change in American society. America had successfully supported the allied forces in their victory in World War One ( ). The war had mobilized American citizens, particularly women, and a nationalistic fervour (patriotism) paved the way for new American ideals to take hold. Modern dance, through the work of Humphrey and Graham, really took hold in the 1920s and 1930s. Some dance historians state that Modern dance is one of the true American artforms.

4 The following points are a guide to studying the context of this era. The 1920's Changing role of women in society Mass Consumerism Gangsterism Segregation Prohibition The Jazz Age The Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s, principally in North America, but also in London, Berlin and Paris for a period of sustained economic prosperity. The phrase was meant to emphasize the period's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism. The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of discontinuity associated with modernity, a break with traditions. Everything seemed to be feasible through modern technology. New technologies, especially automobiles, moving pictures and radio proliferated 'modernity' to a large part of the population. Cultural Influences Doris Humphrey spent a decade performing, choreographing and teaching for Denishawn, sharing a desire to break away from traditional artistic dance performances based on narratives. Ruth St Denis performance style was groundbreaking and controversial at the time, drawing focus on the human form. Humphrey discarded lyrical movement, and instead, explored movement in a more pure form. Part of her movement explorations focused on breath rhythms, which influenced her choreographic choices in Water Study (movement vocabulary, group structures, spatial organisation, no music, close- fitting costumes). The Roaring Twenties in America was a time of progress and development. After World War One, women s roles in society had changed, and this break in tradition was reflected in artistic development. For instance, modern dance broke away from the traditional balletic performances that audiences were accustomed to. Dancers began to perform heavier movements, with bare feet, and drew inspiration from exotic cultures around the world.

5 Movement Vocabulary Genre: Modern dance Modern dance is a term widely used in America and Britain to denote theatrical dance, which is not based on the academic school of classical ballet. Through the early 20th century practitioners such as Martha Graham, modern dance developed in opposition to classical ballet, rejecting the latter's structural formality and (sometimes) thematic frivolity. Modern dance pioneers eschewed the rigid hierarchy of ballet in favour of a freer movement style- favouring bare feet over Pointe shoes, for example. Artists like Graham and Humphrey developed their own methods of teaching the new technique required for their choreography. Early subject matter was often political or psychological. (Craine and Mackrell, 2000: 329) Characteristics of style Characteristics of style can be attributed to movement, manipulation of the elements of dance, use of theatrical elements. Humphrey s own choreography was stripped bare of spectacle and virtuosity and was based on the principle of 'dancing from the inside out', that is, devising movement to specially express specific emotional and physical states. (Craine and Mackrell, 2000: 240) Humphrey's movement technique is based on what she called the 'arc between two deaths'. These 'deaths' are both positions of stasis: standing up straight or lying flat on the ground. Every movement, each shift of weight, was seen as a fall towards or recovery from these two absolute positions. The drama of her movement style (felt by the dancer, sensed by the viewer) is found in the displacement of weight as the body either gives in to or strives to resist the pull of gravity. (Robertson and Hutera, 1988: 73)

6 Water Study 1928 Water Study is an experiment in discarding what Humphrey called the 'cerebral' rhythms of music in favour of the natural phrasing of breathing. It was inspired by the observation of natural phenomenon. (Au, 2002: 125) Quotes from the DVD: A sense of great expanse, of the play of wind upon the water, the peace, and the excitement. There is no music in this dance, so breath is going to become this resource of togetherness. An expansion of the breath so that it s through the vertebrae, into the head, through the arms just enough, and sometimes you arise, and then you let go it is a gradual releasing and that takes muscular power. A dance about natural forces: Organic growth Unbroken flow, everything grows out of itself. Weight travelling in the body (succession: one part following the other) Succession, change of weight, breath rhythms are the basic characteristics of Humphrey s technique