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Research Guides

Chamber Dance Company Archive: Charles Weidman

A unique collection of video documenting the UW Chamber Dance Dance Company's over 25 year history of performing modern dance classics.

Charles Weidman

Leading dancer, choreographer, company director and educator

Born Lincoln, Nebraska, July 22, 1901. Died New York, July 15, 1975.

At the age of nineteen, Charles Weidman received a scholarship to the Denishawn School and soon became a leading Denishawn dancer, partnering Martha Graham and replacing Ted Shawn in important roles. In 1928, Weidman and Doris Humphrey established a company and a school devoted to exploring a new aesthetic. After Humphrey's retirement in 1945, Weidman continued to create dances, perform and teach, and also established a school and company of his own. He taught and performed with the company until his death. Throughout his illustrious career his versatility as a choreographer led him to create dramatic, lyric, historic, abstract, and comic works, as well as dances for several Broadway shows, revues and operas. His large body of work reflects his serious humanistic concerns, his wit, and his clarity as a choreographer. Weidman dedicated Brahms Waltzes to Doris Humphrey because, he wrote, “it is the kind of movement she loved and could dance so beautifully.”

Watch performances of some of Charles Weidman's dances, including Men's Dance, Traditions, and excerpts of Brahms' Waltzes (DVD UWDP 001 v.4) and Lynchtown (DVD UWDP 001 v.48) at the Media Arcade in the Chamber Dance Company Archive.