Humphrey Doris, *17 October 1895 Oak Park (Illinois), †29 December 1958 New York, American dancer, choreographer, teacher. After training in classical dance, she joined the Denishawn School in Los Angeles in 1917; in 1918 she became a soloist with the school’s company, with which she performed until 1928, whilst also beginning her career as a choreographer. Between 1928 and 1940, she ran her own company in New York with Ch. Weidman, for which she created, among others, Water Study (1928, without music), Life of a Bee (1929), Drama of Motion (1931, without music), The Shakers (1931, traditional music), the trilogy New Dance, Theatre Piece, With My Red Fires (1935–36, music by W. Riegger), Passacaglia in C minor (1938, music by J.S. Bach), El Salon Mexico (1943, music by A. Copland), Inquest (1944, music by N. Lloyd). In 1945, she retired from performing due to ill health. Between 1933 and 1934, she collaborated in New York with a wide range of theatres, from musical to dramatic (e.g. choreography for Molière’s The School for Husbands, 1935). From 1934, she taught at the Bennington School of Dance; later, she worked with Connecticut College and, from 1955, with the Juilliard School of Music. From 1945, she was the artistic director of J. Limón’s company. For this company, she arranged, among other works, Lament for Ignacio Sanches Mejias (1946, music by N. Lloyd), Day on Earth (1947, music by A. Copland), Quartet No. 1 (performed as Night Spell in 1951, music by P. Rainier), Deep Rhythm (1953, music by C. Surinach), Ruins and Visions (1953, music by B. Britten), Theatre Piece No. 2 (1956, music by O. Luening), Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 (finalised choreographically by R. Currier in 1959, music by J.S. Bach). She was the author of the choreography textbook The Art of Making Dances (New York 1959), the essay New Dance (“Dance Perspectives” No. 25) and an unfinished autobiography, edited and supplemented by S.J. Cohen (1972).
Humphrey – alongside M. Graham – was a co-founder of American modern dance. She understood dance as a bridge connecting two states of stillness: the body lying flat on the ground and the body standing rigidly upright, both positions being stable and devoid of theatrical effect. She believed that kinetic expression arises when the human body, breaking free from stability, struggles against the force of gravity. This theory, known as ‘fall and recovery’, was not merely a purely theoretical concept, but also the dramaturgical foundation of her choreography, in which the thread of purposeful actions gave rise to patterns in space and time, symbolising the eternal conflict between the human longing for security and the desire to take risks; in Humphrey’s works, the human figure became entangled in dangerous situations and always emerged victorious. From a technical perspective, Humphrey eschewed a specific lexicon of movement, seeking instead those movements that best expressed her ideas. Her compositions contained no spectacular or virtuosic elements; instead, they were always perfectly constructed and meticulously crafted.
Literature: S.J. Cohen Doris Humphrey. An Artist First, Middletown (Connecticut) 1972; E. Stodelle The Dance Technique of Doris Humphrey and Its Creative Potential, Princeton 1978.
