The Art of Making Dances

by Doris Humphrey, Stuyvesant Van Veen (Illustrator), Barbara Pollack (Editor)

Written just before the author's death in 1958, this book is an autobiography in art, a gathering of experiences in performance, and a lucid and practical source book on choreography.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

Reviews

[Searnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had (and has) a lasting impact on my development as a dance critic and watcher. I referred to it often in my brief dance writing career.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

review of
Doris Humphrey's The Art of Making Dances
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - October 19-20, 2022

For the full review go here: http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/CriticH...

Well, well. I've been writing bk reviews for Goodreads for 15 yrs now & this is the 1st dance bk I've reviewed!! That's almost shocking. I have multiple piles of bks to-be-read in my house & this one & another dance bk were on the top of one of these piles. Every time I'd walk past that pile I'd be attracted to the image of Humphrey dancing on the cover. Did I see the bk move ever so slightly out of the corner of my eye? Did it fly into the air when my back was to it only to land in exactly the same place w/o a sound whenever I turned around to look at it again? Apparently, it was time for me to finally read it.

I've always like dancing.. or have I? As w/ most creative activities I've put in my 3.14¢'s worth from time-to-time - but never in a performative way in front of a (v)audience. Way back in the '70s when I was a shy young lad I forced myself to be more extroverted by dancing as if I were drunk when I wasn't. That was really fun. I'd go to parties where there were professional dancers & I'd deliberately dance in a way that completely avoided conformity to the beats of the music. I can remember one dancer that I was ostensibly dancing w/ saying: 'I don't know what music YOU'RE DANCING TO BUT I'M DANCING TO THIS MUSIC!' Scratch that one off for sex. I thought I was being very imaginative & talented. Story of my life.

I have participated in 'performances' that involved dancers such as Franz Kamin's "A.S.R.B.#1" at the Parish Hall, First Unitarian/Universalist Church of Baltimore, us@ on June 11, 1992 ( https://youtu.be/ShRgYeTSK40?t=432 ). Franz had a way of working w/ dancers. Somehow, despite the strangeness of his work, he brought out the dancers's movement skills w/o alienating them.

I, too, have given 'performances' of my own work that involved dancers: take, e.g., the last Official gig in the Zero Work Jubilee in Toronto on August 15, 1992 ( https://youtu.be/EN5U7JANpRA?t=595 ): As I recall, "Having been approached by Katrini after the preceeding so-called whatever & asked whether we'd like to work with dancers, I worked out an interactive proposal usually referred to as the "Dancer Conducting". The dancers had 4 cues with which they could conduct the "official" players whose playing they could then respond to in their dancing & further cueing (which were all part of the same thing): 1 for silence, 1 for a Mexican Hat Dance, 1 for a "See-Saw" alternating between textures, & 1 for an "Ersatz Arabic" theme. As usual, these possibilities were modular & could be played simultaneously in any combination. Katrini co-ordinated 2 other dancers & this was premiered for some "prime-time" national tv show (which I never saw)." ( entry 171, http://idioideo.pleintekst.nl/MereOut... ) Katrini & her friends were wonderful, I wish I'd stayed in touch w/ them. I'd love to see the TV show we were on.

The "Dancer Conducting" (my idea) went on to being part of every Official gig after this - including one in Berlin at Blau-Milch Kanal/Kaffee Sendeschluß, TV Hospital - X94: junge kunst + kultur, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany on April 17, 1994 ( https://youtu.be/02oyDi_yxpI?t=1592 ). The dancers in that one were spontaneous volunteers from our very small (v)audience who I thought of as 'party dancers', the same category I'd put my own dancing in.

On December 25, 1994, I proposed a dance to dancer Chiyoko Szlaynics in Toronto for her proposed series of dances around public sculptures:

"I'd like to perform the "saw dance" nude w/ a nude female dancer in a large public toilet facility. The public sculpture of your proposal wd be the urinals (in a "men's" room) &/or the toilets (in a "women's" room). These wd all be signed "R. Mutt" in honor of Duchamp's fountain. You get the idea. Ideally the "soundtrack" wd be a tape (perhaps similar to the one enclosed that I made yesterday for you) being broadcast to radios wch wd be attached to remote controlled toy vehicles being driven around the room & thru the audience by a bevy of discrete assistants."

That never came to fruition & I suspect that my proposal might've seemed a bit 'too much' (i.e.: completely insane) but I think it wd've been marvelous.

I also got to witness the Merce Cunningham Dance Company perform "Rondo", "Ground Level Overlay", & "Sounddance" at the Byham Theater in Pittsburgh on December 5, 1997. Cunningham was still alive but he was no longer able to dance. He appeared on stage, very bow-legged, at the end. I wish I'd have been able to witness them when Cunningham was still dancing. Either way, it was a remarkable evening.

Writing this, I realize that I have quite a bit to say about dance.. but it's time to move onto the review of this bk! I enjoyed reading this very much. I found Humphrey to be stridently opinionated, it's obvious that she was a strong-willed & visionary choreographer & dancer. I'm sure that if I'd been a dancer in her day I wd've found her to be a bit too old-fashioned - despite her 'Modernism'. Nonetheless, I liked reading her take on things very much, I'd say it's an excellent introduction to Modern Dance.

Chapter 1, "The Sleeping Beauty", begins:

"The dance has been, until recently, entirely ingenue, a sweet obedient child brought up in the theater and the court, and told to be young, pretty and amusing."

[..]

"This is not to say that the ballet form was bad, but only that it was limited and suffered from arrested development—a permanenet sixteen, like the Sleeping Beauty herself. So well established was the formula over so many hundreds of years that, as the twentieth century dawned with its flood of new ideas, there was considerable resistance to any change from the light love story and the fairy tale, and there still is." - p 15

"Suddenly the dance, the Sleeping Beauty, so long reclining in her dainty bed, had risen up with a devouring desire. No Prince Charming was the answer. She awoke staring into the muzzles of the guns of World War I, and she was enamored of such unlikely things as machinery (mechanistic ballets), social problems, ancient ritual and nature (flowers, bees, water, wolves). Another surprising devlopment was her taste for comedy and satire. Not just bits of caricature like that of the elderly lecher in the romantic tale, but full-fledged ballets, humorous and sophisticated. She changed her attitude toward music—the "Dance of the Hours" was certainly not suited to all her moods—and she demanded serious consideration from serious composers. Occasionally she even banished all music or went in for sound effects and odd instruments." - p 16

It's funny, in the past I've found what little I know of the early dance work of Anna Halprin to be the most exciting (she, alas, died recently). But I've also considered Jackie Chan in "Drunken Master" to be the best dance movie I've ever seen. It was also the closest to the way that I've liked to dance (although Chan is at a whole other level of competence). Now, as an old depised & unwanted man I've taken to watching porn (for the obvious reason) & I'm beginning to think that porn might be my current favorite form of dance - the utter giving-in to hedonistic urges can be remarkable. As such, Humphrey's "the Sleeping Beauty, so long reclining in her dainty bed, had risen up with a devouring desire. No Prince Charming was the answer" is relevant in a way Humphrey didn't intend.

"The person drawn to dance is notoriously unintellectual. He thinks with his muscles; delights in expression with body, not words; finds analysis painful and boring; and is a creature of physical ebullience." - p 17

& reading that led to my pondering why I feel that some of my attempts to work w/ dancers have failed. I'm not faulting the dancers, I'm just acknowledging the accuracy of Humphrey's comment & applying it to the conflict between my intellectualism & the tendencies of the dancers. In HiTEC (Histrionic Thought Experiment Collective) I tried to engage a tap dancer, a belly dancer, & a party dancer. The tap dancer dropped out after 4 rehearsals, the belly dancer dropped out after 3, the party dancer decided against participating before the 1st rehearsal she was invited to. The tap dancer's last rehearsal can be witnessed here: https://archive.org/details/HiTEC021full . The belly dancer's last rehearsal can be witnessed here: https://youtu.be/aDDsf5vY4nc . Unfortunately, the 2 of them never rehearsed together. If I cd find dancers who'd gravitate to this type of thought experimenting I think the results wd be very special.

Chapter 2, "Choreographers Are Special People":

"First of all, the potential choreographer should be predominantly extrovert and a keen observer of physical and emotional behavior. Please note that the list does not begin with imagination, inspiration, improvisational skill, poetic or musical feeling, although they certainly play an important part. The dancer's medium is the body, which is an extremely practical and tangible piece of goods" - p 20

"Closely allied to this sense of shape is another intangible taste, which might be abalyzed as a sense of fitness. This is the sense that stops vulgarity from creeping in, that prevents a mishmash of style, such as a sophisticated ballet lift in the middle of a primitive dance. This sense of fitness equally shuns the cliché, the outré and the sensational for their own sake; it unerringly knows the difference between valid theatricality and tricks. Can this be taught? Hardly. All evidence points to the fact that taste is a product of the total environment plus heredity, already so shot through with intangibles that one can only add a few oblique influences and hope for the best." - p 23

I wrote above that "I'm sure that if I'd been a dancer in her day I wd've found her to be a bit too old-fashioned" & the above exemplifies this. One of my pet peeves is the way that rich & privileged people consider themselves to have 'superior taste' simply b/c of their sense of entitlement. Hence we have largely ignorant & uninspired people calling the shots about who gets money to do what & that sort of thing. Otherwise, what Humphrey rejected in 1958 was probably what 'post-modernism' embraced a few decades later: "a mishmash of style", "the cliché, the outré and the sensational". Personally, I'm fine w/ a motherfucking pirouette in the midst of a genetic experiment, doncha know?!

"The other helpful quality is language skill. The choreographer who has a mind full of pungent, vivid or poetic language which he can use to be much more inspiring and secure better co-operation from his dancers than the inarticulate one, who goes in for half sentences finished with a vague gesture. Language skill is for dances that have meaning, for those which are based only on physical movement, the vocabulary of a drill sergeant is quite sufficient." - p 24

By the time this bk was written, Merce Cunningham (w/ John Cage as an intimate collaborator) wd've established his choreography & dancing as at the forefront of the art (& music). As I read this, I often wonder whether Humphrey's taking a dig at Cunningham in an oblique way. My entry point into Cunningham's work is more musical, a subject that resonates intensely for me. I've witnessed as many Cunningham documentaries as I've been able to get my hands on & witnessed the above-mentioned performance. Oddly (perhaps?), I found the performance to be a bit too 'classical' for my inclinations. That sd, I still find Cunningham far more interesting than Humphrey.

Chapter 3, "Sources of Subject Matter—What to Dance About?".

The idea of a dance being about something doesn't exactly bother me but it does make me think of Program Music, a type I've always thought of as 'inferior' to music independent of such reference. That, of course, brings up a whole modernist philsophical issue - one that makes Humphrey less of a modernist & more of a pre-modernist, at least philosophically.

"The one inescapable condition surrounding the choreographer in his chosen art is the hard realism of "now." All other arts can wait for the verdict of history if they are rebuffed by the contemporary world—the choreographer not so."

[..]

"If his work happens to be stimulating to audiences in their current state of development, he is very lucky indeed; but if not, he must resign himself to abandoning his dream child. Not for him the consolation of hanging his creation on the wall in all its original freshness, and waiting hopefully for perhaps posthumous appreciation." - p 28

I think that's an interesting point &, generally, an accurate one. However, it may apply a little more broadly than Humphrey wd've realized in 1958. Performances presented by anyone under restrictive circumstances not likely to allow of repetition can be documented in various ways but the documentation is always an inferior substitute. Hence, this substitute must be able to stand on its own as something else that shares qualities w/ the original but adds other characteristics such as close-ups & views not available to the (v)audience.

Take my recent "Consciousness Expansion Score Movie": the (v)audience gets to experience a 1 hr 19 minute + projection w/ the event-specific playing of the (m)usicians. That's ultimately the experience that's aimed for w/ the project. However, even tho the movie acts as a score that cd be played by people w/o my involvement &/or w/o the involvement of the current set of players, it's unlikely that anyone will go to the trouble b/c it's simply 'too outside the box'. The work of Franz Kamin, even tho it's painstakingly notated, is also unlikely to be performed now that Franz is dead for the same reason.

Nonetheless, in anticipation of this, I've made publicly available online a plethora of "Consciousness Expansion" documents that a hypothetical dedicated scholar cd learn more from than by witnessing a performance. Viz: there're 6 documentaries of the building of the space used, there's 1 documentary that encapsulates these, there're 2 documentaries of duets played in this space in its early days, there's 1 version of the Score Movie made from all these, there's 1 version of a rehearsal of that version of the Score Movie in that space, there's a revised version of the Score Movie, there's a documentary of a rehearsal of that version, there's a version of that revised version that has the sound of the rehearsal added to it, there's a documentary of the 1st performance of the piece in front of a (v)audience in Roanoke, there's a documentary of the 2nd performance of the piece in front of a (v)audience in Pittsburgh: https://youtu.be/Lgd7ME0U-1A . If all of these were witnessed in chronological order by a researcher it wd far surpass the theatrical experience - but it wd require a discipline & a motivation that few, if any, people have. Still, the option is there. Dancers cd do the same.

"From the point of view of visual influences, it seems to me that architecture, especially for those who live in the city, speaks to us and for us with the most insistent cry." - p 29

"The right angle is possibly the prime symbol of our age, eloquent of conflict. Its parent, the straight line, is thought to be best and smartest when it is shiny and naked, pointed slighly like the end of a weapon. The "clean line" is a cult. All this suggests force, too much steel and sterility and that other prime symbol, the fact." - pp 29-30

Humphrey continues to be very clear-headed in her outlook.

"Dance form is logical, but it is all in the realm of feeling, sensitivity and imagination, and these things have been pretty well beaten out of the average youth, as a positive hindrance to "getting on."" - p 31

Chapter 4, "The Theme":

"Propaganda

"The idea of social reform, class struggle or whatever it is, can overwhelm the dance when nothing counts so much as the message. This is usually better from a speaker's platform or in a book, because we have strayed into the world of fact. A statistic is not a good subject for a dance, no matter how emotional the composer might feel about it." - p 36

I have mixed feelings about this since, in some ways, I'm a very political person & have done many things w/ anarchist philosophy at the fore. Also, I don't think that a blanket statement about what shd & shd not be done is 100% viable. That sd, I basically agree. In music, e.g., I find that people who primarily like the political msg of the singer/rapper usually only notice the music as a support. I prefer such msgs, like Humphrey, coming from speaker's platforms &/or printed matter. I enjoy & get the most out of music as music, not as propaganda. I can easily relate to feeling/thinking the same way about dance.

Chapter 5, "The Ingredients and the Tools":

"Many a flattered set of parents have been shocked to find that their beloved child, who is proclaimed talented by his teachers, is not going to leap to fame and fortune overnight by "inspiration," but is going to have to have years of expensive training." - p 45

As a person who's made do for 69 yrs now w/ very little money I'm not so sure that the "expensive training" isn't Humphrey's way of guaranteeing her own income as a dance teacher. That sd, I'm sure that it's harder in the dance world, e.g., to become acclaimed w/o having a mind-boggling amt of chops than it is, say, in the pop music world where the front person can have talent but also has a whole industry behind their look & their sound & their public presence. Lately I've been listening to quite a few Björk releases & while I love her singing & many other things about her work it's hard not to notice that she's basically the figurehead for a big business. I have to wonder what she'd be like if the pyramid underneath her were to be removed. I don't think dancers, esp Modern Dancers, are in the same position. Then again, the dance that I'm referring to is essentially the movement parallel to classical music - both have a heavy emphasis on technical skill wch I admire.. - but, in the long run, the music &, therefore, the dance that's of potentially the most interest to me isn't centered around classical technique, it's centered around the inspiration, the ideas, the technique of a single individual, the idiosyncratic. E.G.: I find this very unclassical guy Javierr to be amazing: https://youtu.be/KZcYIH5xAJY .

[frances]

mentioned in a rachel brice intensive. i would like to learn how to make my own choreographies. perhaps this will help. she did say, however that doris is pretty old-school in her way of thinking.

[Dovydas Strimaitis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doris Humphrey's "The Art of Making Dances" is probably one of the first dance theory books on making Western concert dance from a modern/contemporary perspective. Before her, there have been other dance theory books but they all came from classical dance thinking and for classical choreographers. This book, therefore, is definitely a milestone for contemporary dance. However, it definitely is not valuable only as a historical text - some of Humphrey's advice, insight, and criticism is still valid for today's contemporary dance world. The ones that are not up-to-date anymore, serve as a reminder of where we were and where we might go in the art of dance. Surprisingly, even though she belongs to an emotional modern dance background, she is very level-headed (obviously, she wrote a theory book) and in some instances even serves as a precursor to post-modern dance thinking. Personally, she leans on an expressive modern dance side, but to my enjoyment, in the book, she analysis the art of dance from a much more neutral and general perspective. In some cases, even when she contemplates ways of making dance that in her mind would not work or would not be valuable, she was a sort of sage seeing the future of dance and what new and stubborn generations would try out - 10-20 years after the release of the book, some choreographers embodied exactly those ideas that according to her "would not work" and made them work.
I definitely agree with Humphrey that programs of dance and choreography in higher education establishments should teach a more formal dance theory course, which is not glued together with dance history classes. It is definitely a shock, that after all these years that contemporary dance has been regarded as a rather equal art form to other stage arts, it still does not have a comprehensive system of, or at least an attempt to systemize theory of choreography. Definitely, the one that Humphrey proposes might not correspond to the needs of the 21st-century new dance makers, but in some ways, it is much more up-to-date than some other approaches that are being pushed down nowadays. Mostly because it refers to what is happening (or was happening at the time of writing the book), not what should happen.
This book is definitely a must-read to all dance professionals - be it dancer, choreographer, critic, or especially theoretician.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 we round up here. It wasn’t terrible. Wasn’t great. It definitely left an impact but I had to do a project on it so… that kinda ruined the read. Definitely one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read. I don’t like Nonfiction.

[Raul Marcelo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completito toda todos los temas de diseño coreografico, pero es mas orientado a ballet o a contemporáneo.

[Raul Marcelo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diseño coreografico orientado a ballet o contemporaneo

[Mary-ann Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a relevant read for anyone doing choreography still.

[Chiara Jannotta · Rating 4 out of 5]

love u fr Doris

[Charlotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh 😒 the book did offer insight into the choreographic process BUT is reptation when you have read books similar to this. Could have had more personal experience.

[Annika Chasteen · Rating 5 out of 5]

my girl doris gives so many structural guidances. anytime i have been stuck, she's helped.

[Flissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the impression that this book would be stuffy and strict but I enjoyed it immensely. I like structure and order in my dance, so it made a lot of sense to me. Having little formal choreography training, what Humphrey proposes is a clear and sensible approach. I'm looking forward to experimenting with what I learned in my own dances.

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

favorite line: "i cannot go along with the cult which holds that a face is just something to carry around on the neck..."

i hate that cult too! doris humphrey is such a weirdo.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

a classic

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

" A movement without motivation is unthinkable. Some force is the cause for the change of position. The cessation of movement is death." (Pg. 110)

[Mindy]

highly recommended by Ken.

[Kari Ganske · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any dancer or choreographer!!

[Tamara Bliss · Rating 5 out of 5]

The dancer's "bible" for choreographers. She tells it smartly even 50+ years after her death!

[Surabhi Jain · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read... Treat for aspiring choreographers