Directing the Dance Legacy of Doris Humphrey

by Main, Lesley

• ISBN13: 9780299285845
• ISBN10: 0299285847
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-01-30
• Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Pr

Summary

Directing the Dance Legacy of Doris Humphreylooks inside four of Doris Humphrey's major choreographic works- Water Study(1928), The Shakers(1931), With My Red Fires(1936), and Passacaglia(1938)-with an eye to how directorial strategies applied in recent contemporized stagings in the USA and Europe could work across the modern and contemporary dance genre. Author Lesley Main, a seasoned practitioner of Doris Humphrey choreography, stresses to the reader the need to balance respect for classical works from the modern dance repertory with the necessity for fresh directorial strategies, to balance between traditional practices and a creative role for the reconstructor. Drawing upon her own dance experience, Main's book addresses an area of dance research and practice that is becoming increasingly pertinent as the dancer-choreographers of the 20th century modern and contemporary dance are no longer alive to attend to the re-stagings of the body of their works. Insightful and thought-provoking, Directing the Dance Legacy of Doris Humphreycalls for the creation of new forms of directorial practice in dance beyond reconstruction. The radical new practices it proposes to replace the old are sure to spark debate and fresh thinking across the dance field.

Author Biography

Lesley Main is a leading European exponent of Doris Humphrey's dance tradition, director of the Doris Humphrey Foundation UK, and principal lecturer on dance at Middlesex University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Prologue: Negotiating a Living Past	p. 3
Chasing the Ephemeral	p. 15
Reconstruction, Re-creation, Reinvention	p. 21
History in the Making	p. 24
Theatrical Parallels	p. 29
Battling Beckett	p. 37
Exploring the Creative Impulse	p. 49
Water Study	p. 52
Performance History	p. 54
Identifying and Exploring the Evidence	p. 61
Interpreting from the Present	p. 63
Catching the Undertow: The Dancing of Water Study	p. 73
Passacaglia	p. 79
Performance History	p. 82
A Musical Exploration of Choreographic Structure	p. 87
Centennial Celebrations and Beyond	p. 99
With My Red Fires	p. 106
Performance History	p. 108
Contemporary Perspectives	p. 109
Evidence from the Source	p. 113
Reshaping the Matriarch	p. 121
Creative Possibility	p. 123
The Shakers	p. 129
Performance History	p. 131
Transmission Strategies	p. 136
Crossing the Line	p. 144
Navigating Narrative	p. 149
Epilogue: Dancing the Past Tomorrow	p. 155
Notes	p. 159
Bibliography	p. 169
Index	p. 183
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