£O0S Angeles aRSer Cinies MARCH 17,

 

Noted Pair
Give Dance
Program

BY ISABEL MORSE JONES

Doris Humphrey and Charles
Weidman, superior American
dancefs in the modern manner,
came to Los Angeles last night.
With a company of fifteen they
gave a program of attention-

holding variety. These two, who.

can be credited with a new dance
movement that is strictly Amer-
ican, began their studies with
Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn
when their school flourished.
Abandoning the batik and _ in-
cense phase early, they devel-
oped into alert choreographers
aware of the American scene.
They have the gift of keen ob-
servation and they are high-
ranking interpretative artists.

NATURAL GRACE

Miss Humphrey is frail look-
ing, the artist type. She has nat-
ural grace of body and she has
refined her instrument with har@
work. She moves like the wind
in- widening spaces.

The company is well rehearsed
but each member has a particu-
lar individuality of his own. The
faces are not repellant masks
but are expressive of the cur-
rent pantomime. The costum-
ing is simple in line, economical
in cut and opulent in color. The
music is perfect for the dance
portrayal and it has obviously
been chosen by the musically
intelligent. Composers Brahms, |
Lehman, Slonimsky and Wall-
ingford Riegger contributed. A
piano and some _ unobtrusive
percussion instruments were
used to advantage.

 

Weidman|
is strong and expertly contfolled. |

| BASED ON PSYCHOLOGY

The choreography of “Tradi-
tions” is definitely based on a
| psychological study but it was
neither austere nor dull at any
time. Habits of thought were
exhibited in motion. The audi-
ence recognized its own foibles
and laughed at the mirror which
exhibited them. And yet it was
abstract and there was no di-
rect. representation. of ideas.
“Traditions” is an achievement
in that it allows the dance art to
stand on its own feet in the
realm of mind.

“Exhibition Piece” is the most
delightful satire on ballet dis-
play that we have had so far.
Three dancers, absurdly roman-
tic and gotten up in the mauve
and black velvet which charac-
terizes the decade in which la-
dies swooned and gallants caught
them, gave a performance of
rare delicacy and point.

PRINCIPAL NUMBER

“Theater Piece” was the prin-
cipal concert number of the eve-
ning. It might have been
termed, “Whither are we going?”
Termed a dance of experience, it
comprised the various competi-
tions in which man and woman
are engaged and tops them with
an idealistic vision of faith
danced by Miss Humphrey that
made despair and chaos unreal.
There was delicious humor in
the “Stadium” and the “pur-
suit of the male” and again in
the theater scene where the jazz

babies and the pretending dram-

atists strive for the great goal,|

‘publicity.

The concluding variations
from the New Dance were mo-
notonous but probably were of
technical interest to the _ initi-
ates. The Humphrey-Weidman
dancers bring us an American
art expression that has the spice
of ‘humor and the dignity of

’ truth.

 

 

 

 

 

THE EVENING BULLETIN

 

—~PHILADELPHIA,

 

MONDAY, JANUARY 31),

1938

 

 

DANCE IN REVIEW

 

Miss Humphrey's “Theatre Piece” An
Artist’s Conception of Today

BY HENRY PLEASANTS

has produced nothing at once

so impressive and so encour-
aging as-‘"Fheatre. Piece,” intro-
duced Saturday afternoon to an
eager and appreciative audience in
the Academy of Music by Doris
Humphrey, Charles Weidman and
their Dance Groups in a benefit for
the Philadelphia Committee for
Prevention of Blindness. The chore-
ography is by Miss Humphrey who
has, in the past, repeatedly shown
herself to be a composer of uncom-
mon perception, individuality and
creative imagination. None of her
earlier dances in large forms, how-
ever, has attained quite the ma-
turity of “Theatre Piece,” or its sus-
tained lyric quality and shrewd
sense of theatrical values.

This is the more surprising in
view of the subject matter. “Theatre
Piece” is the first in a trilogy of
large scale dances concerned with
social relationships. It is “a dance
of experience in a place of conflict
and competition,” showing the
world “as it is today.” The other
components of the trilogy are “New
Dance” designed to show the world
“as it should be,” and “My Red
Fires,” dealing with the relationship
between man and woman within the
social schemes. This is delicate ma-
terial for the lyric artist. Only the
most gifted and imaginative can
steer it clear of the snares of pre-
tentiousness and present a personal
point of view in a manner which
will be compelling to others.

Miss Humphrey is obviously thus
gifted. However much she may be

Ti American modern dance

concerned with the qualities of the |

world about her, she expresses her-
self with so much artistic imagina-
tion and with such a sure command
of lyric forms that the _ subject
promptly assumes an _ absorbing
dramatic character. There is no
suggestion of preaching here in the
ordinary sense. Miss Humphrey is

 

obviously pointing a moral, but she
conveys her message with the dig-
nity, restraint and insight becoming
an artist and a cultivated woman.

Throughout the dance Miss
Humphrey is the solo figure, a rebel
against the competitive scheme of
things, played off with ‘splendid
structural effect against the group.
The latter, also in contrapuntal
style, caricature the world in busi-
ness, in love, in sport and in the
theatre. A setting of blocks is used
for extraordinary scenic effects ob-
tained with stunning simplicity. The
caricature is pointed, often gro-
tesque, and always imaginative.

There is nothing episodic about
the piece. The various sections are
welded together with the master
craftsman’s ability to do the right
thing at the right time, and the
joints are so fashioned that one is
hardly aware of them. Miss Humph-
rey’s elaborate solo dance, ‘“Inter-
lude” conveying a theme of “har-
mony and peace” is a model of lyric
invention, and has a firm unifying
effect, preparing the composition
for the coda when “the group is
suddenly brought out of its theatre-
acting by the call to something new”
and the dance ends “on a hushed
note of expectancy.”

The program also contained the
Variations and Conclusion from
“New Dance,” which was _ not
enough to convey a clear idea of the
quality of the work, and a number
of shorter pieces including the
satiric “Exhibition Piece” and Mr.
Weidman’s familiar “Traditions.”
The splendidly trained and dis-
ciplined group danced exceedingly

well, and with a unity of spirit and

purpese which suggested that Miss
Humphrey’s ideal of “a modern
brotherhood of man” might have a
basis in proven reality.

SE