Doris Humphrey - Dancing Through The Great Depression

Dancing Through The Great Depression

In 1928 she and fellow dancer Charles Weidman separated from the Denishawn School, finding superficialities in the Denishawn approach, and moved to New York City to become key figures in the modern dance movement. Her choreography explored the nuances of the human body's responses to gravity, embodied in her principle of "fall and recovery". Her choreography from these early years includes Water Study, Life of the Bee, Two Ecstatic Themes and The Shakers.

The Humphrey-Weidman Company was successful even in the Great Depression, touring America and developing new styles and new works based not on old tales but on current events and concerns. In the mid-1930s Humphrey created the New Dance Trilogy, a triptych comprising With My Red Fires, New Dance and the now-lost Theater Piece.

Humphrey retired from performing in 1945 due to arthritis. She then took up the position of artistic director for the José Limón Dance Company and continued to successfully choreograph works such as Day on Earth, Night Spell and Ruins and Visions.

One of her last pieces, Dawn in New York, showed the strengths she demonstrated throughout her career – her mastery of the intricacies of large groups and her emphasis on sculptural shapes. Humphrey was on the original faculties of both The Bennington School of the Dance (1934) and The Juilliard School (1951), both directed by Martha Hill.