Doris Humphrey letters

1898-1941

Doris Humphrey, born October 17, 1895 in Oak Park, Illinois, was one of the most important personalities in the American modern dance movement during the first half of the 20th century. Her initial dance training was at the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago. Graduating in 1913, she organized her own dancing school in Oak Park and the surrounding communities. In 1917, she travelled to Los Angeles to enroll at Denishawn and was accepted into the company. At Denishawn she met and worked with not only Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis, but also Pauline Lawrence and Charles Weidman. In 1920 she choreographed four works, Valse Caprice, Bourée, Soaring,and Sonata Pathétique(the latter two choreographed with Ruth St. Denis). With Weidman she formed a performing group in 1928, for which she created Color Harmony, Air on a G String,and Dance of the Chosen(later called The Shakers).On a boat trip to the West Indies, she met Charles Francis Woodford. They married in 1932 and their son, Charles Humphrey Woodford was born in 1933. In 1934, she joined the faculty of the Bennington School of the Dance, Bennington College in Vermont. Her choreographies from this period include the trilogy New Dance, Theatre Piece,and With my Red Fires, Passacaglia in C Minor, El Salon Mexico,and Inquest.In 1940, the Humphrey-Weidman Studio Theatre opened in New York City. Owing to a hip ailment, she was forced to retire as a dancer in 1944 but continued as a teacher and choreographer. As artistic director of the José Limón Company, she created Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, Day on Earth, Deep Rhythm, Ruins and Visions,and Theatre Piece No. 2.In 1948, she joined the faculty of Connecticut College School of the Dance, New London, Connecticut. She wrote The Art of Making Dances(published 1959) and New Dance(published in Dance Perspectives25). She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for her book on choreography and the Dance Magazine Award in 1958. That same year she began writing her reminiscences but they remained unfinished at her death December 29, 1959, in New York City.