Article Abstract:
Nona Schurman danced in pioneering choreographer Doris Humphrey's company and has become an authority on Humphrey and her modern dance works. She believes the power of Humphrey's art lies in its simplicity and its reliance on universally basic structural forms. It is based upon the principles governing human movement, especially on the concepts of falling and recovering from the fall. Falling and recovery are also part of Humphrey's philosophical message in which she continually asserted that democratic ideals are achievable, and that the human spirit will always recover from whatever setbacks it encounters.
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Article Abstract:
The pioneering modern dance choreographer Doris Humphrey used dynamic symmetrical and asymmetrical communal forms interacting with representations of individual will to express the world's tensions in her choreography. Humphrey constructed her dances architecturally in three dimensions. She employed continually changing group structures to create a sense of linear flow in her dances. Her emphasis on form helped her choreography express the relation of the single entity to the group, and the struggle of a variety of individuals to combine and achieve communal unity.
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Article Abstract:
Pioneering modern dance choreographer Doris Humphrey was deeply concerned with both group choreography and social justice, but her art was not politically motivated. Leftist dancers of the 1930s used group dance to express their ideological point-of-view. While Humphrey, in her 'Life of the Bee', did envision individuals subjugating themselves to the greater good, her ultimate communal goal was artistic not political. She was more concerned with abstract pattern and form in her work than with expressing her political opinions.
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