Person
Biography
Doris Hering was a pioneering critic who surveyed the dance world for decades, beginning in the 1940s and continuing well into her 90s. Between 1951 and 1969, she gave several lectures at Jacob’s Pillow, usually speaking on dance criticism. Roughly during the same period, she was the associate editor and principal critic for Dance Magazine, often covering Pillow activities. She was a close professional colleague of Ted Shawn, both frequent adjudicators for regional ballet festivals. She had started reporting on the regional ballet movement in the 1950s, eventually becoming director of the National Association for Regional Ballet, a post she held for many years. After her retirement in 1987, she returned to criticism. She had recently been working on two books: a study of the pioneers of American regional dance and an anthology of her own criticism. With these projects still in progress, she died on October 15, 2014, at 94.