A musical exploration of Doris Humphrey's Passacaglia.

Sound Moves was a major, international conference whose primary focus was the relatively under-researched field of the music-dance relationship, as this is highlighted in and by choreographic production. The focus of this published paper, taking up the cross-disciplinary orientation, is an exploration of the music-dance relationship within the specific context of a major historically-specific modern dance work, viewed from the perspective of the impact of music and its orchestration to choreographic decision-making. The paper emphasises and enquires into the notion of 'choreographic philosophy' - a term used in Stodelle, Hausler and Cohen (amongst others) - with reference to major choreographic practitioners. It proceeds to consider what some of the contributory factors to such a recognisable 'philosophy' might be, when we consider the recorded works themselves, as traces of choices excluded as well as decisions made. It focuses in particular not so much on the well-researched use of Bach, by Humphrey, but on the widely under-acknowledged contribution of Stokowki's orchestration itself, to choreographic decision-making processes. It enquires into the ways aspects of music would seem to impact on and influence the interpretation of dance 'ideas', including the physical/ physiological interpretation of sound, and it draws attention to the writing itself in the case of some of the written critical responses to the work concerned, at the time of its initial production.