“The Art of Making Dances” by Doris Humphrey

I got this book on loan from a friend, I was curious since I have choreographed a number of dances but I have never sat down and studied it myself. A book appeals to me much more than a class because classes on choreography tend to start at the mind-numbingly simple as most dancers only have experience with doing moves that have been given to them, not coming up with their own. And since I’ve been choreographing for a while I so don’t want to go back to that stage, I more want ideas I can mess around with and think about. Or feedback on a larger piece, but that’s unlikely.

The book is very comprehensive and methodological when it comes to dance. It quite literally starts with a discussion of who the choreographer is and habits that a choreographer should have when it comes to noticing movement and adapting it to other bodies. It goes through the tools of the trade like symmetry/asymmetry, phrases, the stage itself, and having multiple bodies to work with. Then there’s dynamics, rhythm, motivation, words, music, props, and finally overall form. Most chapters have a basic illustration to show what she is referring to with things like symmetry or opposition as well. It ends with a checklist and Humphrey’s thoughts on the field of dance as a whole (in the 60s anyways).

Overall, this was a great read but I think it requires a certain amount of familiarity with the dance world. She talks about existing pieces such as “Giselle” or the “Dying Swan” variation that you’d probably have to close the book and watch before going back to it. If you have that knowledge though, this is a very thorough overview of modern dance and how to think about/construct it. She really builds her knowledge from the ground up and covers everything very completely.

At the end of the book is a list of dances that she made, and I was really interested in going to find some after reading this. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like many survived, I was able to find two recreations of her work online and not much else, a few snippets really. It just goes to show how fleeting dance is as an art form, there isn’t a good way to write it down and once you’ve performed it, if someone hasn’t memorized it the choreography is truly just gone. And here’s a pioneer of modern dance whose whole body of work has been greatly reduced. Even a few dances by other people that she references I couldn’t find, the preservation just isn’t there.

Anyways, with regards to what I’ll be thinking about, she did definitely give me some ideas. I hadn’t thought much about the stage itself and how I use it beyond how center is very powerful. She has a whole chapter on entrances and exits. Bows too get a dedicated section. There’s also a bit about words and dialogue in dance which I never thought about before, but she is right in that dance is a singular art form where performers are not expected to make noise. Seems like it’d be fun to shake that up.

So this was a great read, possibly for me only, but I am very glad that I picked it up. I hope that in the future I can attend a performance of some of her choreography, it seems a shame to have read so much about it to never see it.