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MARGARET'S PHILOSOPHYMargaret Morris made a significant early innovative contribution to performing arts, dance training, sport preparation training and movement therapy. She went on to devise her own comprehensive structured technique encompassing recreational, therapeutic, athletic and creative elements and called it Margaret Morris Movement (MMM). This became the core training for performing arts students when she opened her first school in 1910. She went on to develop performance dance companies from the 1920's to 1960's. She also became an accomplished artist and her interest in form, line and colour had a profound influence in all her work and ensured an aesthetic content in all that she created. Various early quotes;I first realised the absolute necessity of relating movement with form and colour when studying painting of the modern movement in Paris in 1913. From that time I incorporated it as one of the main studies in my school. In this connection I am deeply indebted to J D Ferguson, the painter, who for years has taught the painting design and sculpture in my school and who first made me realise the possibilities of theatrical work considered from the visual point of view, and the value of the study of form and colour as a means of education. Margaret Morris 1925 Margaret Morris Dancing - photographs by Fred Daniels Published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co Ltd, Margaret Morris Quote and Dance School Training Syllabus 1925,The training is primarily intended for teaching or for the stage but is often taken as a physical and mental training by girls who do not intend to become professionals. Margaret Morris Dancing with photographs by Fred Daniels Published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co Ltd Margaret Morris Dance School Training - Syllabus 1925
NB Margaret Morris's physiotherapy training enabled her to have a medical understanding of the body mechanics which she used to develop a Movement Therapy Syllabus of corrective movement. These quotes acknowledge how her early training ideals echo many of those of today.. MMM magazine in 1930 - Margaret Morris - A BRIEF ACCOUNTFor human beings in general my aim is to enable each individual to achieve that balance co-ordination and control of mind and body essential to a healthy and happy life. The human machine is unfortunately generally very imperfect often due to the bad environment and adverse conditions of life imposed by our civilisation. Therefore some basic training harmonising the mental and the physical, is necessary for most people to co-ordinate the whole, and bring them up to standard of proper functioning for health and happiness. With the athlete and professional, the aim is more specialised and more severe. In the remedial function the aim is to restore lost and impaired function, and re-establish harmony, strength and balance. The exercises are modified to suit the various conditions of physical weakness and deformity, and many special exercises have been composed. I state most emphatically that any physical training that I have put forward must start from a basis of natural movement. It is possible to establish with reasonable accuracy the normal mechanics of the body, i.e the range of movements and correct leverage of each joint and the physiological effects of different kinds of movement on the functioning of the organs, the respiration and the circulation. I want to impress on the mind of everyone who reads this that breathing is an essential part, sometimes the most important part, of all my normal and remedial exercises. If the exercise is performed holding the breath or with the minimum of breathing, half the value of the exercise is gone and if the chest is contracted and the abdomen sagging as well the value of the exercise no matter how conscientiously performed is nil! The question of posture is inseparable from breathing. It is impossible to stand well and breath badly. NB. These quotes also show her strength of character, conviction and medical interest in creating a globally beneficial movement. Quotes-: THE EDUCATIONAL AND REMEDIAL VALUE OF DANCING By MARGARET MORRIS Published in Journal of Living & Learning January 1934Dancing means to some people any casual movement; to others any quick and complicated steps or acrobatic dexterity of arms and legs. But by dancing we mean movements made by people to express any experience of life, of which they have received a sufficiently important impression to build upon intelligently. A great deal has been done in the correction of faulty posture by remedial exercises, but not nearly enough importance has been attached to the question of interest in these exercises and how much better it would be for the child, if the exercises for general health or curative purposes were not given as such, but as a form of recreation, full of interest and amusement! A solution is combining the medical and the artistic point of view. In MMM we combine these points in a practical workable method. We find that personal creative work is of the greatest value in developing the faculties of concentration and construction and in over-coming self-consciousness both in children and adults. The value of rhythm to induce movement in difficult cases. Rhythm in it's fullest sense must include the aesthetic and it's full possibilities both for getting muscular response and for awakening interest have certainly not been made the most of! Margaret's early understanding of the importance of rhythm and creative stimuli and children's need to have fun in therapeutic exercise to fully benefit them is clear in the above quotes. Margaret's articles and books are extensive. |