9.04.2007

From the UW Archives:
Marge H'Doubler

With another tip of the hat to a friendly reader and former UW dance student... here are two pics of Margaret H'Doubler who first taught dance at the UW and who is widely credited with initiating college-level dance study in America. When someone proposed that she consider teaching some form of dance at the UW, Marge is reported to have replied, "What, and give up basketball?" Nevertheless, she experienced an inspirational intervention of some sort and taught her first dance class in 1917. H'Doubler rarely demonstrated movement to her students; instead, she utilized a skeleton and her students' own bodily knowledge. Thus the skeleton in both below photos. The first is a somewhat frequently circulated image here at the UW Dance Program, so I'm also including a less familiar one. Both were taken in 1965.







3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful images, thanks for putting them up. There are all sorts of photos throughout Lathrop that not only illustrate the dance departments rich history (the swimming pool, women lined up for physical education, H'Doubler teaching kinesiology, etc.) but also photos that capture an intensity and liveliness that is rare. For instance, the jumping dancer with drum accompaniest near the parlor on the first floor...

Anonymous said...

p.s. Don't those women in the second photo look bored? Maybe they wished Margaret would dance a little for them...

Erk said...

After much inspection, I've decided that the woman in glasses is bored or sleepy-- maybe she worked too hard on her chemistry midterm the night before? And to her right is a student who's indignant that In Glasses isn't paying closer attention to Marge. The fellow seems very attentive and the woman to the far right very sensitive. I believe there's a reason why this image is circulated much less than the first...