Charles Weidman

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Portrait of Charles Weidman by Carl Van Vechten, Dec. 4, 1933

Charles Edward Weidman, Jr. (1901 in Lincoln, Nebraska-1975) was a modern dancer, choreographer and teacher. He studied and performed with Denishawn before leaving to form the Humphrey-Weidman school and company with Doris Humphrey and Pauline Lawrence. Like his partner Humphrey, Weidman worked from principles of fall and recovery and also experimented with a form of linking unrelated movements that he called "kinetic pantomime." During the 1930s, Weidman taught at the Bennington School of the Dance in Vermont and presented choreography including his popular Candide (1937) through the Federal Dance Theatre of the WPA.

Many of Weidman's choreographic works, such as Flickers (1941) and Fables for Our Time (1947), were known for their wit, but he also created dances with socially relevant content such as the suite Atavisms (1936). Other dances chronicled his family history (On My Mother's Side (1940), And Daddy Was a Fireman, (1943)). The Humphrey-Weidman company disbanded in the early 1940s, and Weidman continued to teach and choreograph on his own. Later works included Portofino (1958), Christmas Oratorio (1961) and Brahms Waltzes (1967), which paid tribute to his old partner.