Margaret Newell H'Doubler (April 26, 1889,

Beloit, Kansas Beloit is a city in and the county seat of Mitchell County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 3,404. History On permanent organization of the county in 1870, Beloit was selected as the county seat ...

– March 26, 1982,

Springfield, Missouri Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. The city's population was 169,176 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Springfield metropolitan area, which had an estimat ...

) was a dance instructor who created the first dance major at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

. Her dance pedagogy was a blend of expressing emotions and scientific description. She used her knowledge about the body to help create movement to express what the dancers were feeling. She wrote five books about her pedagogy and about the importance of dance in education. Among H'Doubler's students was

Anna Halprin Anna Halprin (born Hannah Dorothy Schuman; July 13, 1920 – May 24, 2021) was an American choreographer and dancer. She helped redefine dance in postwar America and pioneer the experimental art form known as postmodern dance and referred to hers ...

, a post-modern dance pioneer.

Early life

Margaret Newell H'Doubler was born April 26, 1889, in

, to Charles and Sarah H'Doubler. In 1903 the family moved to

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

, because Margaret's older brother had been accepted to the University of Wisconsin to study math and biology. She looked up to her brother because she also had an interest in biology. She graduated from

Madison High School Madison High School may refer to: * Madison County High School (Alabama), Gurley, Alabama * Madison High School (Idaho), Rexburg, Idaho * Madison Consolidated High School, Madison, Indiana * Madison High School (Kansas), Madison, Kansas * Kentuc ...

in 1906, where she participated in basketball and baseball. She attended the University of Wisconsin to major in biology and minor in philosophy. In 1910, she graduated and was given a job as an assistant instructor teaching basketball, baseball, and swimming. These courses were under the newly established Department of Physical Education for Women. In May 1916, H'Doubler left to attend

Columbia University Teachers College Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), is the graduate school of education, health, and psychology of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, it has served as one of the official faculties and ...

for graduate work in philosophy and aesthetics. After struggling to find a dance form she enjoyed, she met the music teacher, Alys Bentley. Bentley had her students move in relation to music while lying on the floor. Through this, H'Doubler came to discover a lasting fascination in how students could find their own movement with the help of the relative gravitational freedom of

floorwork In dance, floorwork refers to movements performed on the floor. Floorwork is used extensively in modern dance, particularly Graham technique and Hawkins technique, as well as in vernacular breakdancing. Some dance training practices, notably Floor- ...

.John Wilson, Thomas Hagood and Mary Brennan, ''Margaret H'Doubler: The Legacy of America’s Dance Education Pioneer''(Youngstown, NY:

Cambria Press Cambria Press is an independent academic publisher based in Amherst, New York. The publishing company was established by 2006, with its first titles released in September of that year.Blackwell Book Services (2007) Cambria publishes academic mono ...

, 2006), p. 22.

Dance pedagogy

H'Doubler began teaching dance in the summer of 1917. She described dance as an art and science which formed her foundation. Her theory of dance was viewed as acceptable because it was feminine and aesthetic. She taught exercises based on her idea of natural body movement; this was movement that did not require formal dance technique. She started with her students on the floor and then progressed to standing positions. She was interested in how the body reacted to the "structural changes of position of the body" and "self generated creativity". She wanted her students to express their own ideas and feelings through movement, often asking them to describe their movements in scientific terms. After coming up with her theory of teaching dance, she wrote ''Manual of Dancing: Suggestions and Bibliography for the Teacher of Dancing'' in 1921. Her fourth book, ''Dance: A Creative Art Experience'' was published in 1940. In it she explains her theory of dance pedagogy about the expression of one's own thoughts and feelings through dance. She states that the technique is "training the mind to use the body as an expressive instrument". H'Doubler highlights the teacher's ability to inspire confidence in students so they will not be afraid of what they will reveal when expressing their own feelings through dance. In this book she includes her principles of composition: Climax, Transition, Balance, Sequence, Repetition, Harmony, Variety and Contrast. In 1918 H'Doubler founded a group of dancers called Orchesis, which is Greek for expressive gesture.”Margaret H’Doubler,”''Dance Magazine'', April 1966, p. 33. The

opened Lathrop Hall in 1921, which was a studio devoted to dance. This was also the first university to develop dance courses. In 1926, she collaborated with Dean Sellery and the faculty of the

School of Education In the United States and Canada, a school of education (or college of education; ed school) is a division within a university that is devoted to scholarship in the field of education, which is an interdisciplinary branch of the social sciences en ...

to develop the first curriculum establishing dance as a major. Her approach to dance education was to "enable each individual to live as fully as possible" and believed the "educational process must be based upon scientific facts concerning the nature of human life". In her thinking and teaching, she advocated focusing on

kinesthetic Proprioception ( ), also referred to as kinaesthesia (or kinesthesia), is the sense of self-movement, force, and body position. It is sometimes described as the "sixth sense". Proprioception is mediated by proprioceptors, mechanosensory neurons ...

awareness in terms of three phases: (1.)

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...

, which she describes as bringing information from the muscles, joints, and tendons; (2.)

associative In mathematics, the associative property is a property of some binary operations, which means that rearranging the parentheses in an expression will not change the result. In propositional logic, associativity is a valid rule of replacement f ...

, which takes place exclusively in the brain; and (3.)

feed-forward Feedforward is the provision of context of what one wants to communicate prior to that communication. In purposeful activity, feedforward creates an expectation which the actor anticipates. When expected experience occurs, this provides confirmato ...

, the process of sending messages back to the muscles.

Legacy

H'Doubler retired from the university in 1954. She continued to be a guest speaker and teach master classes until her death in 1982. In 1963 she was a Heritage Award recipient of the National Dance Association. After receiving a $4 million donation in 1998, the University of Wisconsin-Madison renovated Lathrop Hall and with a new theatre named the Margaret H’Doubler Performance Space.Thomas Hagood, ''A History of Dance in American Higher Education''(Lewiston, NY:

Edwin Mellen Press The Edwin Mellen Press or Mellen Press is an international Independent business, independent company and Academic publisher, academic publishing house with editorial offices in Lewiston (town), New York, Lewiston, New York, and Lampeter, Lampete ...

, 2000), p. 145.

Other

H'Doubler's grand niece and namesake is the screenwriter

Margaret Nagle Margaret Nagle (born January 12, 1969) is a screenwriter, television producer and human rights activist. She has been nominated for two Emmy Awards and won three Writers Guild of America Awards. Nagle began her undergraduate work at UC Berkel ...

References

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