Doris Batcheller Humphrey (October 17, 1895 – December 29, 1958) was a dancer and choreographer of the early twentieth century. Humphrey was born in Oak Park, Illinois but grew up in Chicago, Illinois. She was the daughter of Horace Buckingham Humphrey and Julia Ellen Wells and was a descendant of pilgrim William Brewster. Along with her contemporaries, Martha Graham and Katherine Dunham, Humphrey was one of the second generation modern dance pioneers, who followed their forerunners – including Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn – in exploring the use of breath and developing techniques still taught today. As a result of many of her works being annotated, Humphrey continues to be taught, studied and performed to this day.
In Chicago, she both studied and taught dance, opening her own dance school in 1913 at the age of 19. In 1917, she moved to California and entered the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, where she studied, performed, taught classes, and learned choreography. Her creations from this era, Valse Caprice (Scarf Dance), Soaring, and Scherzo Waltz (Hoop Dance) are all still performed today. Humphrey toured the Orient for two years, followed by a successful career in American vaudeville theaters.
In 1928, she and fellow dancer Charles Weidman separated from the Denishawn School 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 darkness of 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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Humphrey
Dorris Humphrey was taught dance by the Denishawn school, which was created by first generation modern dancers, Ruth St Denis and Ted Shawn who taught the second generation dancers Humphrey and Charles Weidman, then after moving to new york they created the Humphrey-Weidmaan company which was wildly sucessful. Humphrey practiced the technique of fall and recovery to do with gravity, which is a very important aspect of technique still used today in contemporary dance.
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