Doris Humphrey
Isadora Duncan
“Water Study”
Repertory Workshop & Performances with Dances We Dance
Class and repertory workshop
SUNDAYS September 8 – November 10, 2024
4:00 – 7:00 pm
Performance Week
Tech Rehearsal: Sunday Nov 17 (time TBD)
Dress Rehearsal: Thursday Nov 21 (after 1 pm)
Performances: Thu-Sat, Nov 21-23 at 7 PM, Sun, Nov 24 at 3 PM
Location for workshop and performances:
Martha Graham Studio Theater
55 Bethune Street
Westbeth Building, 11th Floor
New York, NY 10014
Subways: A, C, E, 1 to 14th Street
Join us for a unique opportunity to learn 2 extraordinary repertory works by two extraordinary women choreographers of the 20th Century, Doris Humphrey (1895-1958) and Isadora Duncan (1877-1927). This is a 10-week (3 hr/week) workshop culminating with performances during Dances We Dance’s 2024 Fall NY Season at the Martha Graham Studio Theater in NYC.
Doris Humphrey’s dance “Water Study” (1928) is a vivid choreographic example of breath motif in a multiplicity of rhythms and forms. Performed without music and with a large ensemble of dancers, the piece depends entirely on the rhythmic flow of the bodies and breath of the dancers. The composition begins on the floor (on the knees) with gentle wave undulations rippling successionally through their bodies. Gradually the movement becomes more intense; running and leaping suggesting high crashing waves on a stormy sea, rising to a climax and subsiding again to calm gradually returning to tranquility.
Classic in balance, symmetry and frontality, Isadora Duncan’s “Water Study” clearly evokes water and waves. Motifs are built on the ideas of weight and flexibility, reflecting Duncan’s fascination with “the law of wave movement” in nature. Endlessly flowing undulations, billows, swirls and ripples invite comparison with “Waves,” “Splashes” and “Ripples” in the more complex “Water Study” of Doris Humphrey. Walt Whitman’s “In Cabin’d Ships at Sea” provides a perfect poetic description of the Duncan Water Study: “We feel the long pulsation, ebb and flow of endless motion / The tones of unseen mystery, the vague and vast suggestions of the briny world, the liquid-flowing syllables.” (ref. Nadia Chilkovsky Nahumck)
We are looking for 10 to 16 intermediate to advanced dancers with some professional experience who are interested in ensemble dancing, passionate about learning these repertory works, and are able to commit to the 10 week workshop plus performance season. Please note that sections of the Humphrey Water Study require floor work, specifically on the knees; dancers should be comfortable with getting on and off the floor several times.
The Humphrey repertory will be taught by leading Humphrey specialist and DHF director Gail Corbin. The Duncan repertory will be taught by Francesca Todesco, artistic director of Dances We Dance.
Come share in a living history of modern dance and gain a physical and intellectual perspective on the origins of contemporary theater and dance, examining how the movement vocabulary developed and transformed over the years.
A limited number of places are available: dancers who sign up must be available for the full workshop, in addition to tech, dress rehearsals and all the performances. Understudy positions are available.
Selection process: we will accept the first 20 applicants who sign up and pay a non-refundable $17 fee. On the first day of the workshop, Sunday September 8, Ms. Corbin will teach a class from which we will select a certain number of dancers for the ensemble, as well as a couple of understudies (the ensemble will be learning both the Humphrey and Duncan repertory). The selected dancers will then continue with the 10-week workshop and they will be asked to pay the full amount, minus the $17 fee. Payment plan available — see DWD website for details.
Deposit fee: $17 (for first class session)
Full workshop fee: $320 – this (minus deposit fee) will be due only after you have been selected on September 8