The Shakers

The Shakers represents the Shaker sect at meeting and is a study of religious ecstasy.  

The drum, accordian and voice accompaniment was arranged after the dance had been composed. « God hath revealed », the Shakers say, « that eternal life shall be the reward of the Chosen few who are shaken clean of sin. »

The dance opens with men and women kneeling in a square formation before the platform where the Elders sits.  

As religious excitement seizes them, the square begins to break until the peak of excitement is reached in the leaping wich shakes away their sins.  

The dance is punctuated with several intervals of silence whie the Shakers receive some visitation from the Invisible Spirit.  

This is the first dance of its kind to be based on an American religious sect.

Source: Program note March 14-15, 1935, Doris Humphrey & Charles Weidmanand their dance group – Repertory Theatre, Boston