Biography and Legacy of Doris Humphrey

Biography:

Doris Humphrey was born in 1895, to a journalist father and concert pianist mother.  She started a rather successful dance school in her hometown immediately after graduating High School, but chose to further her career in 1917 by moving to Los Angeles to work with Denishawn.  While working as a dancer at Denishawn, she was also given the opportunity to teach and choreograph.  In 1928 Humphrey, along with Charles Weidman, left Denishawn and moved to New York where they became integral parts of modern dance.  Doris sought to push beyond the superficiality of Denishawn and explore the possibilities of the human body.  This led to her technique based on fall and recovery.  She retired as a dancer in 1944 due to severe arthritis in her hips.  Despite her inability to dance she continued her career as artistic director of Jose Limon's company.  She finished writing her book The Art of Making Dances in 1958, and passed away in December of that same year.

The Humphrey Legacy:

Doris Humphrey played an integral role in the birth of American Modern Dance.  After spending years with the Denishawn Company she found their obsession with the Orient to be quite superficial, which spurred her departure with Charles Weidman from the company.  After leaving they started their own company and school in New York, with the intent to avoid this shallow dancing.  She strove to create work that was appropriate and relatable to contemporary America. They established “the esthetic and audience base for their innovative dance. They created works addressed to contemporary concerns.”(2)  She was interested in returning dance to pure movement.  This is particularly evident in her 1928 work, Water Study.  The dancers performed in minimal clothing accompanied by the live sounds of their own breath.  

Perhaps her most prominent role in history was her theory of fall and recovery.  After hours in front a mirror she came to the conclusion that movement falls on a spectrum between “motionless balance and falling imbalance incapable of recovery”.(1)  She understood that each movement away from gravity requires a compensation to regain balance and avoid falling.  This understanding led to a dramatic utilization of gravity in both her choreographic works and her technique. 

In her final years before death Doris wrote The Art of Making Dances; a book that is considered to be the first modern book on choreography.  It is a guide, not only for dance, but also for the performing arts in general.  Despite the fact that Doris left this world over fifty years ago, her book is still in wide circulation. Her technique, as well as her repertoire, continues to be taught and performed around the world. 

Works Cited:

1. "Doris Humphrey (American Dancer)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica. Web. 16 Feb. 2014. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/276354/Doris-Humphrey>.

2. "Biography." The Doris Humphrey Society Biography Comments. Web. 16 Feb. 2014. <http://www.dorishumphrey.org/the-early-years/>.

Biography and Legacy of Isadora Duncan

Biography:

Isadora Angela Duncan was born on May 26^th, 1877 in San Francisco, California. Primarily her mother, Dora, raised her because her parents divorced when she was an infant. Dora had a great appreciation for the arts, and exposed Isadora to them at a young age. “At the age of 6, Duncan began to teach movement to little children in her neighborhood; word spread, and by the time she was 10, her classes had become quite large.” (1)

Duncan lived with her Brother, Raymond in New York and Chicago. She studied Greek Mythology and visual iconography, which gave her inspiration for her movement. She was intrigued by the bare feet and draped clothing of Greek art. After sometime she moved to Europe and became a huge sensation there. As her life progressed she opened schools in Germany, Russia, and the United States; her students were known as the “Isadorables.”

As Duncan aged she faced horrible tragedies. In 1913 her two children and their nanny drowned. She married “poet Sergey Aleksandrovich Yesenin in 1922, favoring a legal union to allow him travel to the U.S. However, the couple was ostracized due to anti-Bolshevik paranoia, and Duncan declared that she would not return to America.” (1) Yesenin committed suicide in the mid 1920s. Duncan continued to be emotionally unstable through the rest of her life. She died on September 14^th, 1927 when her scarf was caught in the back tire of an automobile driving away. Her autobiography, “My Life” was published later that year. She was inducted into the Dance Hall of Fame in 1987.

The Duncan Legacy:

Isadora Duncan is known as one of the “Mothers of Modern Dance.” Her free spiritedness, Greek Mythology influences, and bare feet made her controversial in the United States. Her fresh point of view was widely accepted in Europe, however, and she became a huge sensation over seas. “With free-flowing costumes, bare feet, and loose hair, she took to the stage inspired by the ancient Greeks, the music of classical composers, the wind and the sea.” (2)

With her individuality she helped dance to have an important place in the arts. She boycotted corsets and the controlled form of ballet. Duncan stepped out of the studio to dance and embraced nature to inspire movement. She embraced philosophy and literature to teach and inspire her. Isadora referred to her movement as “…natural phenomenon- not an invention, but a rediscovery of the classical principles of beauty, motion, and form.” (2) She danced with her natural impulses and wished to dance her life in the present. Duncan moved for movement sake.

Although Isadora was beloved by so many people, her free-spiritedness caused much controversy because it was so different for the time. Duncan helped to break down barriers of what the definition of dance was and what the definition of women was. She was an advocator of Women’s Rights, which led to her inspiring many people for years to come. Duncan broke down barriers for women. She made money in her profession and opened her own schools of dance in the United States, Russia and Germany. “In 1913, her image was carved into the entrance of the newly built Theatre des Champs-Elysees. It was also painted in murals of the nine muses by Maurice Denis in the auditorium.” (3) Duncan had an influence everywhere she went and helped to shape dance into what it is today, as well as shape the woman of today.

Works Cited:

1. A&E Networks. "Isadora Duncan Biography." Bio.com. 2014. A&E Networks Television. 13 Feb. 2014 <http://www.biography.com/people/isadora-duncan- 9281125>.

2. Isadora Duncan Foundation. "About Isadora Duncan." About Isadora Duncan. 2012. 13 Feb. 2014 <http://www.isadoraduncan.org/the-foundation/about-isadora- duncan>.

3. Treva Bedinghaus. "Isadora Duncan." About.com Dance. 16 Feb. 2014 <http://dance.about.com/od/famousdancer1/p/Isadora-Duncan.htm>.