search button

    Close window

      Close window

      Contact
      Share
      Section navigation

      Dr Lesley Main

      ROLE: Head of Department - Performing Arts
      DEPARTMENT: Performing Arts
      TELEPHONE: +44 (0)20 8411 6133
      EMAIL: L.Main@mdx.ac.uk
      1. Biography &
        Qualifications
      2. Learning &
        Teaching Interests
      3. Research Outputs &
        Interests
      4. Funded Research &
        Knowledge Exchange Projects
      5. Engagement &
        Impact

      • Biography &
        Qualifications

        Biography

        Lesley Main is Head of Performing Arts and formerly Principal Lecturer in Dance at Middlesex University, teaching Humphrey-based Technique, Repertoire and Performance. Amongst other roles within the university, she was Chair of the Dance Department from 1999 – 2004 and Acting Head of Performing Arts in 2008. 

        A leading European exponent of Doris Humphrey's dance tradition, she worked with Ernestine Stodelle in the USA from 1985, performing in and directing a number of Humphrey's major works, including The Call/Breath of Fire, Water Study, Two Ecstatic Themes, The Shakers, New Dance, With My Red Fires and Passacaglia. Lesley is director of the Doris Humphrey Foundation, a charitable foundation that produced the Humphrey Centenary events in 1995 and continues to promote her work throughout the UK. She has also taught extensively throughout Europe.

        Publications include articles for a range of dance journals and conference presentations in the UK, Italy and Germany including Congress for Research in Dance (CORD) and the Society for Dance History Scholars (SDHS). Two recent publications are a book chapter arising out of an AHRC funded project, and a sole-authored monograph for the Studies in Dance series published by SDHS/University of Wisconsin.

        For the past fourteen years, Lesley has been guest director in Turin, Italy, for the company and school of Arke Compagnia d'Arte. She performs regularly with the company and has directed a number of Humphrey's works. Recent productions include Water Study and Passacaglia. She was invited to stage Passacaglia for Momenta Dance Company in Chicago, USA and revived the work for the company's autumn season the following year. She is currently staging Humphrey's signature solo, Two Ecstatic Themes for December 2014 and will be returning to Italy to stage With My Red Fires for Arke in 2015.


        Languages Spoken

      • Learning &
        Teaching Interests

        Teaching & Learning

        General teaching and learning interests encompass

        • Technique (Humphrey-based)
        • Performance and Repertory
        • Teaching dance technique
        • MA Independent Project: (Supervision)
        • MA Professional Practice in Dance Technique Pedagogy: Supervision

        PhD supervision

        Completion:

        Abigail Hoffman (2011) 'Yoga practice in dance training'

        Current supervision:

        Susanne Martin - 'Dance improvisation and aging'

        Helen Kindred – 'Nurturing creativity in dance through improvisation'

        I welcome the opportunity to supervise PhD projects in a variety of practice-based contexts including dance technique and performance, dance pedagogy, choreographic practice.

      • Research Outputs &
        Interests

        Current areas of research

        • Pedagogic strategies for the teaching of dance technique
        • The dance tradition of modern dance pioneer, Doris Humphrey
        • Directing the Humphrey repertoire
        • Developing new directorial/interpretive strategies for modern dance stagings
        • Influences and impact of the Dance and Music interchange within a dance technique class environment
        • Co-director of Body Talk, an anti-bullying project for young people, designed to raise awareness and provide strategies through combining the language forms of expressive writing and movement.

        Key research publications

        Sole authored book

        Main, Lesley 2012 Directing the Dance Legacy of Doris Humphrey: the Creative Impulse of Reconstruction.  USA: University of Wisconsin Press ISBN 978-0299-28584-5; ISBN (e-book) 978-0-299-28583-

        http://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/4983.htm

        Chapters in edited books

        Fensham Rachel and Carter, Alexandra (eds.) 2011 'Nature moving naturally in succession' in Dancing Naturally: Nature, neo-classicism and modernity in early twentieth century dance. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-230-27844-8

        Jordan, Stephanie (ed) 2000 'The Staging of Passacaglia - A Director's Perspective' in Preservation Politics, London: Dance Books pp. 106: 113

        Refereed articles

        'Creative Choice – on whose authority'. Choreographic Practices, Vol. 4.1, 2013, p. 59 – 74

        'The Dances of Doris Humphrey: creating a contemporary perspective through directorial interpretation'. Dance Research, Vol. 23.2, Winter, 2005 p.106 – 122

        Refereed contribution

        Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism, 2014 – Entry on Doris Humphrey. General editor – Stephen Ross; Dance Editor – Susan Manning.

        [The REM is a comprehensive online resource that provides essays associated with modernism related to the arts and is the leading peer-reviewed resource in modernist studies to include all of the arts and to consider a wide range of international examples.]

        Conferences

        Refereed and published conference proceedings

        Pierce, Ken (ed) 2010 'The Spectacle of Silence and Stillness'. Society of Dance History Scholars, Thirty-third Annual Conference, University of Surrey, Guildford and The Place, London, UK.

        Randall, Tresa (ed) 2009 'The pedagogic significance of 20th Century modern dance training for the 21st Century dancing body' in Global Perspectives on Dance Pedagogy Research and Practice: Proceedings Congress for Research in Dance, De Montfort University

        Rhodes, J. (ed) 2005 'A Narrative Perspective on Doris Humphrey's 'With My Red Fires' – an exploration of the consequences of directorial intervention in the staging of dance'.  Proceedings for 2005 Symposium on Systems Research in the Arts. ISBN no. 1894613457 pp. 67 – 71. 17th Annual Conference on Systems Research, Informatics, and Cybernetics, Baden-Baden, Germany

        Bennett, Toby (ed) 2005 'A Musical Exploration of Doris Humphrey's Passacaglia', with reference to how musical interpretation can influence directorial interpretation and performance of a dance work' in Proceedings from the Sound Moves Conference – an international conference on music and dance. http://roehampton.ac.uk/soundmoves pp.118 – 124 Co-convened by Roehampton University, Princeton University and the Royal Ballet at Roehampton University. London

        Non-published conference contributions (sole-authored)

        2009 Reaching 'the natural' through 'nature' – an exploration of Doris Humphrey's Water Study'. University of Surrey/NRCD International Symposium, Moving Naturally, Rethinking Dance 1900s – 1930s AHRC funded project

        Performance work

        • Passacaglia by Doris Humphrey, director, performed by Arke Compagnia D'Arte, Torino, Italy, Teatro Venaria, March, 2008
        • Water Study by Doris Humphrey, director, performed by Arke Compagnia D'Arte, Torino, Italy, Teatro Venaria, September, 2008
        • Passacaglia by Doris Humphrey, director, performed by Momenta Dance Company, Chicago, USA, October/November, 2008

        Publication Feed

        Silent transformations in choreography-making over time: Rosemary Butcher’s practice of 'Looking Back and Ahead'

        Sachsenmaier, Stefanie (2017) Silent transformations in choreography-making over time: Rosemary Butcher’s practice of 'Looking Back and Ahead'. In: Transmissions in Dance. Main, Lesley , ed. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 163-188. ISBN 9783319648729

        Performing history: Wind Tossed (1936), natural movement and the hyper-historian

        Salgado LLopis, Maria (2017) Performing history: Wind Tossed (1936), natural movement and the hyper-historian. In: Transmissions in Dance: Contemporary Staging Practices. Main, Lesley , ed. Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 61-83. ISBN 9783319648729

        Transmissions in dance: contemporary staging practices

        Main, Lesley , ed. (2017) Transmissions in dance: contemporary staging practices. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783319648729

        Soft is fast: Simone Forti in the 1960s and after by Meredith Morse [Book review]

        Main, Lesley (2017) Soft is fast: Simone Forti in the 1960s and after by Meredith Morse [Book review]. Studies in Theatre & Performance, 37 (2). pp. 289-290. ISSN 1468-2761

        Humphrey, Doris (1895-1958)

        Main, Lesley (2018) Humphrey, Doris (1895-1958). In: The Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism. Ross, Stephen , ed. Routledge.

        View more publications

      • Funded Research &
        Knowledge Exchange Projects

      • Engagement &
        Impact

        Founder/Director – The Doris Humphrey Foundation UK (from 1995)
        Website: www.dorishumphreyfoundationuk.co.uk

        Board member – The Doris Humphrey Society, USA (from 2007)

        External Examiner:

        • BA (Hons) Physical Theatre, St Mary's College, 2005 - 2009
        • BA (Hons) Dance, DeMontfort University, 2006 - 2010
        • MA Dance and Professional Practice, DeMontfort University 2009 - 2012
        • PhD Roehampton University, 2012

        Membership of learned society

        • Congress on Research in Dance (Int)
        • Society for Dance Research, (UK)
        • Society for Dance History Scholars (Int)

        Periodic book reviewer for 'Dance Research'

      In this section

      Back to top

      We use Cookies

      View our Privacy and Cookie policy

      Continue