Born on 11th may 1894, Martha Graham was an American choreographer and contemporary dancer whose effect on dance can only be matched to Frank Wright’s influence on architecture, Picasso’s on arts and Stravinsky’s impact on music (Graham, 08). Martha was born of George Graham and Jane Beers in Allegheny City. Her parents were strict Presbyterians. She began her studies at Denishawn School of Dancing and Correlated Arts in the mid-1910s and stayed until 1923 (Thoms, 03). Her career in dancing and music started in 1922 when she performed one of Shawn's Egyptian discos with Lillian Powell in a movie. Martha was struggling to harmonize a dance routine on movie with a televised conductor and a live rock band.
In 1925, Martha was employed by Rouben Mamoulian at Eastman School of Music where they produced “The Flute of Krishna”, a two-colour film featuring students. Immediately, Mamoulian left and Martha followed against the school’s wish to keep her. In 1926, she found the Martha Graham Center of Modern Dance, debuted her major concert in which she composed 18 short trios and solos. In the same year, in the Klaw Theatre in NY, Martha and her colleagues gave a dance recital that amazed many who got to appreciate her talent and ability (Maureen, 01). During her life, she strived to ensure that any person that was talented in music would get an appropriate environment to expose and utilize their talents. Her students prospered and found music schools in other parts of the world. One of her most successful students is Bethsabée de Rothschild who went to Israel in 1965 and founded the Batsheva Dance Company.
Martha made the chronicle in 1936 and signalled the commencement of a new epoch in dance. Her early teaching was based on conscious and the physical variations that happen as a performer inhales and exhales (Foulkes, 96). Martha capitalized on this and developed the idea that the tension of a contracted muscle brings about movement and energy as the muscle is relaxed. Currently, Martha’s technique of muscle shrinkage and pelvic contractions has become common, taught in many schools and used in many performances.
Horst later introduced to new and cubist art and the works of Mary Wigman, a German dance master. Horst also advised her to work with contemporary composers after teaching her musical forms. Horst influenced her to start radical movement style based on boniness and melodramatic falls that were engrossed on mystical melodies and discover the characters’ internal sensations and wishes. Martha’s works sourced profoundly from Greek mythology, American edge life and the spiritual ceremonials of Native Americans (Foulkes, 72). For instance, in 1930, Martha created “lamentation”, a single in which she dressed in a duct of textile that stretched to make a poignant statue articulating scuffle, detention and sorrow (Thoms, 27). Through music and dance, she stood out as a woman who could easily put across any information no matter the emotional provocativeness of the message. Despite all, her works garnered applaud and criticisms from artists, critics and audiences universally.
Martha collaborated with many composers including Norman Dello Joio, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland and William Schuman (Maureen, 01). Martha proved to the world her ability to collaborate with high profile musicians and dancers until 1958 when her mother passed away in Santa Barbara. In 1964, she was hit by another calamity when she lost Louis Horst, someone who had helped her achieve so much in life. Reckoning eras were approaching. As a way of appreciating Horst, Martha said, "His sympathy and understanding gave me a landscape to move in. Without it, I should certainly have been lost"(Thoms, 27). In her late 70s, she attempted suicide but failed. In 1971, she appeared to retire from the stage due to severe arthritis. In 1990, she completed her last ballet, Maple Leaf Rag, before succumbing to pneumonia in 1991 (Graham, 35).
Works Cited
Foulkes, J L. Modern bodies: Dance and American modernism from Martha Graham to Alvin Ailey. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Print.
Graham, M. Blood memory. New York: Washington Square, 1992. Print.
Maureen Janson. "Martha Graham | Dance Teacher magazine | Practical. Nurturing. Motivating. The voice of dance educators." N.p., 2005. Web. http://www.dance-teacher.com/2005/03/martha-graham/
Thoms. Martha Graham. Gender & the haunting of a dance pioneer. Bristol: Intellect Ltd, 2013. Print.
