Doris Humphrey

Doris Batcheller Humphrey, born October 17, 1895, and passing on December 29, 1958, was an early twentieth-century American dancer and choreographer. She belonged to the second generation of modern dance pioneers, a group that included Martha Graham and Katherine Dunham. These artists built on the work of earlier figures like Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn, investigating the role of breath and crafting techniques that remain in use. Because many of her pieces were carefully recorded in notation, Humphrey’s work is still taught, studied, and staged.

Humphrey entered the world in Oak Park, Illinois, but grew up in Chicago. Her father, Horace Buckingham Humphrey, worked as a journalist and briefly managed a hotel; her mother, Julia Ellen Wells, had trained as a concert pianist. She could trace her lineage back to pilgrim William Brewster, a Mayflower passenger from 1620. In Chicago, her mother encouraged her studies with prominent ballet instructors and with Mary Wood Hinman, who taught dance at the Francis Parker School. While still in high school, Humphrey toured the western states as a dancer, with her mother accompanying on piano, in a group sponsored by the Santa Fe Railroad for its Workman’s Clubs.

Financial pressures led Humphrey to open her own dance school in 1913, when she was 18. Her mother managed the school and played piano. The venture proved highly successful, offering classes in classic, gymnastic, and ballroom dance for children, plus ballroom instruction for young adults.

In 1917, at Mary Wood Hinman’s urging, Humphrey moved to California and joined the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts. There she studied, performed, taught, and learned choreography. Works she created during this period—*Valse Caprice* (Scarf Dance), *Soaring*, and *Scherzo Waltz* (Hoop Dance)—are still performed. She remained with Denishawn for about a decade, touring the Orient for two years and later enjoying a successful run in American vaudeville theaters.

Humphrey stood just 5'3" tall and had a slender frame. In 1932 she married Charles Woodford, a merchant in the Royal Navy. The couple had one son, Charles Humphrey Woodford, born in 1933.

In 1928, Humphrey and Charles Weidman, a close collaborator, left Denishawn and relocated to New York City. Around the same time, Martha Graham also broke away from the Denishawn fold. Humphrey and Graham each developed distinct theories about the core dynamics of dance movement, which became the foundation of their respective techniques. Humphrey’s theory centered on how the human body responds to gravity, encapsulated in her principle of “fall and recovery.” She described this as “the arc between two deaths.” At one extreme, a dancer yields to gravity; at the other, the dancer strives for balance. This fall-and-recovery concept allowed Humphrey to depict the emotional and physical climax of struggling for stability versus surrendering to gravitational pull.

Her early choreography from this period includes *Air for the G String*, *Water Study*, *Life of the Bee*, *Two Ecstatic Themes*, and *The Shakers*. Unlike Denishawn, which drew inspiration from foreign cultures, Humphrey looked to her own country for material. *The Shakers*, based on an 18th-century American religious group, exemplifies this homegrown approach.

The Humphrey-Weidman Company thrived even during the Great Depression, touring the United States and creating new works that addressed current events and social issues rather than old stories. In the mid-1930s, Humphrey produced the “New Dance Trilogy,” a triptych consisting of *With My Red Fires*, *New Dance*, and the now-lost *Theater Piece*. Although the three pieces were never performed together, they all used a score by Wallingford Rigger. The trilogy examined the competitive lives of businessmen, working women, athletes, and actors.

Humphrey took part in the Federal Dance Project (FDP), established in the 1930s under Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Second New Deal. The FDP was the first national program to provide financial support for dance and dancers.

She expanded into Broadway choreography in 1933 with *School for Husbands* and again the following year with *Life Begins at 8:40*.

During the 1940s, Humphrey worked extensively with José Limón, a former student. After retiring from performing in 1944 due to arthritis, she became artistic director of the José Limón Dance Company, creating works such as *Day on Earth*, *Night Spell*, *Ruins and Visions*, and *Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias*. Limón and his company carried forward and developed Humphrey’s dance style.

One of her final pieces, *Dawn in New York*, showcased her enduring strengths: mastery of large-group dynamics and a focus on sculptural shapes. Humphrey served on the original faculties of both The Bennington School of the Dance (1934) and The Juilliard School (1951), each directed by Martha Hill.

In 1952, she began directing a new children’s dance company called The Merry-Go-Rounders.

Humphrey died in New York City on December 29, 1958, and was interred at Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois.

At the heart of her movement theory was the concept of fall and recovery, which she termed “the arc between two deaths.” This idea revolved around shifts in the center of gravity, balance, and recovery. She believed that moving away from the center required an equal adjustment to return to it, preventing a fall. The more dramatic the movement, the greater the risk of losing control.