Modern Dance Before Bennington
Sorting It All Out
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11223836 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Marcia B Siegel (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1987 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 3-9 |
| Publication date | 1987-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Dance Research Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0149-7677 • E-ISSN: 1940-509X |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1477764 |
| OpenAlex | W2072919034 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 1 |
The young people who began to assemble in the New York dance studios early in the 1930s were seized by reformist zeal. They believed they were building a better world, and their idealism served them well, both as incentive when there were few other rewards, and as a sign to the world that they were to be taken seriously. For indeed, they wished to be taken seriously, and in those very first days, their legitimacy in the world of American art seemed certain. As Doris Humphrey began to think more formally about the group that was to realize her works, she set forth her aims in a long letter to prospective members. She was enlisting them in a crusade. With the extraordinary mixture of crystalline practicality and inspirational ardor that she kept all her life, she foresaw a journey that would be all the more glorious for the obstacles they would surmount together. “I am first a creative artist, thirsting to see my conceptions made visible; after that I am also interested in developing individual talent in others, in performing for audiences, educating audiences, promoting the cause of Dance, making money, and establishing a Dance Theatre in America.” The order in which she set down these goals was not accidental. She wanted her dancers to understand that Humphrey-Weidman could pay virtually nothing — $10 a performance — and she frowned on the commercial theater as a supplementary source of income. “All group dancing in musical comedy or opera or motion picture houses” she placed in a “different class” — by implication an inferior one
Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Comedy · Dance · Legitimacy · Musical · Nothing · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Studio · Visual arts · Cinema and Media Studies · Diversity and Impact of Dance · Law · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Philosophy
| Citations per year | 0.1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1996 - 2020 (25) |
| Highly cited | No |