Thrilled at all the well-deserved attention for director Mona Fastvold‘s sensational new film, The Testament of Ann Lee, starring the luminous and daring Amanda Seyfried, her frenzied devotional swirlings bringing an 18th century religious icon to life — in the same moment, I recall dance pioneer Doris Humphrey, a century ago, revivifying Lee’s charismatic separatist sect, the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearance, in her modernist ensemble work, Dance of the Chosen, later retitled The Shakers.
“There was a center figure, yes,” Humphrey wrote, with reference to her lead choreographic role as The Eldress, “but by far the strongest and most important movement is given to the Group and their collective strength.”
Praised by Jose Limon at a run-through of The Shakers as she “leaped across the studio…the mass of red-gold hair flying behind her like a trail of fire, moving like a gazelle…a creature enamored of the air,” Doris Humphrey inspired her ensemble of twelve Brethren and Sisters to “sing in Gift, forcible, clear & plain to the Heavenly Host, take nimble steps,” wave arms skyward, stoop, beckon, and “motion in pantomime.”
“It hath been revealed — ye shall be saved when ye are shaken free of sin!” Humphrey shouts, bending at the waist, hands dangling from wrists. She delves into paroxysms. Brethren and Sisters follow her lead, hands flopping as if sprinkling water from fingertips — they lunge, crouch, and pound the floor with effortful expulsions of breath, until the Eldress reaches an ecstasy of twirling, and concludes with a final “Amen!”
Discussing her film, Fastvold, herself a trained dancer, told Gia Kourlas of The New York Times, “It’s never a performance,” concurring with choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall that “it’s never for anyone but you [the dancers]…what matters is that [they] knew what the movement meant. It’s not about doing it right or wrong. It’s about intention.”
To Amanda Seyfried, the embodied journey of The Testament of Ann Lee was a “blessing…to be able to explore something and live through [the Shakers’] experience with movement. You’re so present.”
As is the gratefully-remembered presence of Doris Humphrey.
[Photograph of Doris Humphrey (center) and ensemble in The Shakers, 1938, by Barbara Morgan.]