The Doris Humphrey Legacy Two Ecstatic Themes Coaching, Analysis & Performance Choreography by Doris Humphrey Performed by Sarita Smith-Childs Music by Nikolai Karolovich Medtner and Gian Francesco Malipiero Analysis and Coaching by Ernestine Stodelle This double solo, Circular Descent and Pointed Ascent, forms an unusually pure example of modern dance. In Circular Descent, voluptuous circuitous circling conveys a strong woman’s reluctant yielding to a powerful force. No sooner does she fall than she begins her Pointed Ascent, sharply jutting out an elbow or knee, gathering her weight to conclude at the triumphant vertical. This 1931 work is a reference is to Humphrey’s inner feelings about her courtship and, later, marriage while remaining an independent artist. As she was to say: “I am an artist first, and afterwards a woman.” Analysis and coaching by Ernestine Stodelle. Produced by The Doris Humphrey Society with a grant from The National Initiative for the Preservation of American Dance, underwritten by the Pew Charitable Trusts and administered at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. 90 minutes, color