Doris Humphrey (1895-1958) is one of the founders of American modern dance. She created a distinctive approach to movement based on the body’s relationship to gravity and the use of weight, and her choreographic works are considered classics of modern dance.
Born in Oak Park, Illinois, Humphrey was an avid dance student from a young age, and she opened her own dance studio after graduating from high school. She moved to Los Angeles in 1917 to join the Denishawn School and Company, where she performed and taught until 1928, when she and Charles Weidman left to form their own group in New York. Between 1928 and 1944, she choreographed and performed for the Humphrey-Weidman Company, an artistic collaboration that produced ground-breaking dances as well as outstanding performers, José Limón among them. When physical disability ended her career as a dancer, she became the artistic director and mentor for Limón and his company, creating classic works such as Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias (1946), Day on Earth (1947), Invention (1949), and Night Spell (1951). Her final artistic contribution, The Art of Making Dances, was published in 1959 and remains an essential text on choreographic principles.
See more archival images of Doris Humphrey in the image gallery.
