The Philosophy of Doris Humphrey - Page: 2

The German philosopher Nietzsche was a great inspiration to Doris Humphrey. His broad schemed philosophy supported Humphrey's early ideas concerning natural movements as a basis for dance technique. Studious in nature, Humphrey was known for having extensive notes to accompany her lectures, classes, and interviews, so it seems likely that she would gravitate to looking at the written word in her search for a creative stimulant. Humphrey "loved learning not only for its own sake, but also for the illuminations it shed on mankind in general." (Stodelle)

Humphrey's approach to dance and the study of human movement was not personal but universal in nature. Quite poetic and philosophical in her expression, Humphrey examined the process of life in man when she wrote:

"If we understand in our bodies the various ways that force moves and the various sequences that it moves in we know something about ourselves because we all as an organism follow the same laws." (Stodelle)

Humphrey's interest was definitely in the movement of all living organisms instead of a personal approach used by other choreographers of her time, such as Martha Graham.

Humphrey's tie with Nietzsche is perhaps most evident in that they were both observers of nature. She did much study on the force or energy as a creative element and felt that the desire to move was natural. She found that this desire was a stimulus in all organic matter to reach out from its center point. This also goes against Graham's philosophy which dictated that energy returned to one's center. Humphrey's ideas on equilibrium also suggested that organic matter would eventually desire to return to the center, but only to be released once again. She saw this as a balancing act to ensure the "safety" of the organism.

Thus, Humphrey believed that rhythms of dance were a result of the dancer's desire to pull toward and away from equilibrium. Humphrey's approached this theory of equilibrium in a very scientific and logical way. She referred to the end effect as "static death/dynamic death." By this, she meant the danger of constant equilibrium or the danger of too extreme a move away from equilibrium and used this idea as the human struggle for survival.

In Humphrey's studies of nature, she devised her "fall and recovery" technique. Humphrey explained the importance of fall and recovery in dance when she said:

"Falling and recovering is the very stuff of movement, the constant flux which is going on in every living body, in all its tiniest parts, all the time." (Stodelle)

To Humphrey, this process had a strong psychological meaning as well. Humphrey described herself as innately responding to the exciting danger of the fall and the peace and contentment of the recovery.

Humphrey viewed the body as an instrument with the ability to move in an infinite amount of ways, both emotionally and physically:

"Just as there is delight in danger, there is terror in danger; just as there is peace in repose, there is deathly stillness for the spirit in repose. To fall is to yield; to recover is to reaffirm one's power over gravity and oneself." (Stodelle)

The duality in the fall/recovery method was Humphrey's metaphor for the nature of people, and this universal message is probably why her contribution to modern dance is so important.

Sources:

Siegel, Marcia B., "Days on Earth: The Dances of Doris Humphrey," The Library of Congress, 1987.

Stodelle, Ernestine, "The Dance Technique of Doris Humphrey," Princeton Book Company, 1978.