Edwin Denby (dancer)

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Edwin Orr Denby (born February 4, 1903 in Tientsin , China , † July 12, 1983 in Searsmont , Maine ) was an American modern dancer , dance critic , poet, librettist and film actor .

Life

Edwin Denby was one of the most influential American dance critics of his time and a well-known poet. He came from an American diplomatic family. His grandfather, Charles Harvey Denby I, worked at the US embassy in China, and Edwin's father, Charles Denby II, was also the US ambassador. He married Martha Dalzell Orr. Soon after Edwin's birth, the young family moved via Shanghai to Vienna , where the father served as Consul General of the United States from 1905 to 1915. In 1916 the company moved to Detroit , Michigan. A year later, Edwin was sent to the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut. Here he already distinguished himself with his own poetry. However, he broke off his studies at Harvard after two attempts and returned to Europe, where he hoped for a more enlightened attitude towards his nature.

First, Edwin Denby underwent a psychoanalysis against depression in Vienna with Paul Federn , a colleague of Sigmund Freud , who helped him enroll in the Hellerau-Laxenburg School in Vienna in 1925 for rhythmic gymnastics . Denby completed the three-year training with success. In 1929 he followed the call to Germany to the Hessisches Landestheater in Darmstadt . There the ballet master Claire Eckstein , herself a graduate of the Wigman School in Dresden, established a cheerful expression of modern expressive dance .

With the takeover of the Nazis Edwin Denby could not be more sure of his life in Germany. He left it just in time in 1934. The first stay of his escape was Basel. While looking for someone who could take a passport photo of him, Edwin Denby met the Swiss photographer and later film director Rudy Burckhardt . In 1935 they both moved to New York, West 21st Street in Chelsea . Orson Welles and John Houseman persuaded Edwin Denby to work on the farce “Un Chapeau de Paille d'Italie” by Eugène Labiche for the theater. The play appeared in 1936 under the title "Horse Eats Hat" as Works Progress Administration Federal Theater Production. He then worked as the librettist for Aaron Copland's opera The Second Hurrican , which was performed in 1937 under the direction of Orson Welles. In addition, Denby worked as a teacher for gymnastics and dance. Since 1936 he published dance reviews, u. a. in Modern Music magazine , and over time became a sought-after critic for all forms of dance in New York. At the same time he wrote poetry and appeared in 13 films from 1937 to 1982.

On July 12, 1983, after a long illness and fear of losing his mental strength, Edwin Denby took his own life with an overdose of sleeping pills in the summer house in Searsmont (Maine), which he lived in with his partner Rudy Burckhardt.

Fonts (selection)

  • About psychological repercussions of gymnastics . In: Zeitschrift für psychoanalytische Pädagogik , Vienna, III (7), April 1929, pp. 222–228.
  • In public, in private . Press of James A. Decker, Prairie City, Ill. 1948.
  • Looking at the dance . Pellegrini & Cudahy, New York 1949. (Reprints 1968, 1973, 1978).
  • Mediterranean Cities . Wittenborn, New York 1956.
  • Dancers, Buildings, and People in the Streets. Horizon Press, New York 1965. (Reprints 1973, 1979).
  • Snoring in New York . Angel Hair / Adventures in Poetry, New York 1974.
  • Collected poems . Full Court Press, New York 1975.
  • Dance Writings . Ed. by Robert Cornfield and William Mackay. Alred A. Knopf, New York 1986.

Appreciations

  • His writing on dancing was, from my first awareness of it, evocative and necessary. I asked him once why he wrote as he did. He answered, "It was to encourage people not familiar with dancing to look at it." We know how admirably he succeeded. Merce Cunningham
  • He's probably the most famous dance critic, or the most admired, that anybody knows about now. (...) Still later, at Frank O'Haras funeral, Edwin Denby referred to O'Hara as the greatest living poet. I rather like to think of Edwin in that way myself. Virgil Thomson
  • "Edwin shouldn't be writing about Markova ," Bill said. "Markova should be dancing about Edwin." Elaine de Kooning
  • We are all aware of Edwin's remarkable perceptions. And there was something more in his reviews. Edwin tried to treat everyone specially, as if each were, as Martha Graham calls them, an Acrobat of God. You could feel his respect and consideration whether he wrote pro or con. It was more than tact and politeness - it was honor, for he felt each person special and singular. Jerome Robbins

literature

  • William Dunas (ed.): Edwin Denby Remembered - Parts I-IV. In: Ballet Review , 12: 1, Spring 1984, pp. 6-42; 12: 2, Summer 1984, pp. 18-31; 12: 3, Fall 1984, pp. 87-95; 12: 4, Winter 1985, pp. 81-93.
  • Ron Padgett: Introduction to Edwin Denby, The Complete Poems. Full Court Press, New York 1986.
  • Robert Cornfield: Introduction to Dance Writings. Knopf, New York 1986, pp. 3-9.
  • William MacKay: Edwin Denby, 1903-1983 , in Dance Writings. Knopf, New York 1986, pp. 11-34.
  • Barbara L. Ciccarelli: American National Biography Online. Feb. 2000.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Merce Cunningham: Edwin Denby . In: William Dunas (ed.): Edwin Denby Remembered - Part III. In: Ballet Review , 12: 3, Fall 1984, pp. 87-95, here p. 91.
  2. ↑ Virgil Thomson: Edwin Denby . In: William Dunas (ed.): Edwin Denby Remembered - Part I. In: Ballet Review , 12: 1, Spring 1984, pp. 6–42, here p. 23.
  3. ↑ Elaine de Kooning: Edwin Denby . In: William Dunas (ed.): Edwin Denby Remembered - Part I. In: Ballet Review , 12: 1, Spring 1984, pp. 6–42, here p. 29.
  4. ↑ Jerome Robbins: Edwin Denby . In: William Dunas (ed.): Edwin Denby Remembered - Part I. In: Ballet Review , 12: 1, Spring 1984, pp. 6-42, here p. 34.
personal data
SURNAME Denby, Edwin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Denby, Edwin Orr (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American modern dancer, dance critic, poet, librettist, and film actor
DATE OF BIRTH 4th February 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Tientsin , China
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 1983
Place of death Searsmont , Maine