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Early Life
Martha Graham was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on May 11, 1894.She was one of George and Jane Graham's three daughters. One of her sisters developed asthma, so the family moved to California because the weather was better. Graham became interested in studying dance after she saw Ruth St. Denis perform in Los Angeles, California, in 1914. Her parents did not approve of her becoming a dancer, so she enrolled in the Cumnock School, a junior college. -
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Dance Beginning.
After graduating from Cumnock, she enrolled in the Denishawn Studio, a dancing school operated by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. Graham began dance late at 22 years old, but was a very hard working woman. Graham started to perform in dances including the Arabian 'Serenata Morisca' and 'Spanish Suite'. In 1921 she was the lead role, Xochitl about an attacked Aztec maiden. In 1923 Graham left this company to do two years of solo dancing for the Greenwich Village Follies. -
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Experimentation with dance.
In 1924 she became dance instructor at the Eastman School of Music and Theater in Rochester, New York. She began experimenting with modern dance forms. "I wanted to begin," she said, "not with characters or ideas but with movement." She rejected the traditional steps of classical ballet; she wanted the dancing body to be related to natural motion and to the music. She experimented with what the body could do based on its own structure, developing what was known as "percussive movements." -
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Graham's Dance Company.
Graham established her own dance company and began to develop her own dance technique. Based on her own interpretation of the Delsartean principle of tension and relaxation, Graham used a method of "contraction and release." For her, movement originated in the tension of a contracted muscle, and continued in the flow of energy released from the body as the muscle relaxed. This gave Graham's dances and dancers a hard, angular look. -
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Graham's first concert.
At 48th Street Theater, Martha Graham presents her first independent concert. Graham's first dances were performed on a bare stage with only costumes and lights. The dancers' faces were tight, their hands stiff, and their costumes short. Later she added more scenery and different costumes for effect. The music was modern and usually composed just for the dance. Isadora Duncan, the first modern dancer, had used music to inspire her works, but Graham used music to make her works more dramatic -
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'Revolt'
In 1927 this was the first dance of protest and social comment staged in the United States, which was set to the avant-garde music of Arthur Honegger. It was not given positive reviews since it lacked the typical dance form. They thought this form of dance was 'ugly'. She described this period of choreography as the 'period of long woolens' which referred to the long jersey dresses she wore. -
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'Lamentation.'
Graham sat on a low bench, wearing a tube-like shroud with only her face, hands and bare feet showing. In the dance, she began to rock with anguish from side to side, plunging her hands deep into the stretchy fabric, writhing and twisting as if trying to break out of her own skin. She was a figure of unbearable sorrow and grief. She did not dance about grief, but sought to be the very embodiment of grief. -
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Dance Repertory Theatre
Along with Charles Weidman, Doris Humphrey, and Helen Tamiris, Graham joined the Dance Repertory School. The goal for these was to give an annual season of dance programs which would represent the art of American dance. It gave a creative outlet for the modern artists to work. Unfortunately, it only lasted two seasons. -
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'Frontier' and 'Primitive Mysteries'
Graham worked alongside composer Louis Horst for over two decades. Among some their collaborations were 'Frontier,' a solo piece, and 'Primitive Mysteries,' with Graham and her female dancers. 'Frontier' established the beginning of Graham's use of decor by the Japanese-American sculptor, Isamu Noguchi. 'Frontier' was a dance that represented a frontier woman's mastery of the uncharted territory. Graham's dances were solely made up of an all-woman cast. It will be in 1938 when men join. -
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Graham's popularity.
In February of 1936, Martha Graham was invited to appear at the Olympics in Berlin, Germany but she declined on March 14th. She did not want to have anything to do with Germany at that time. She was also was invited to the white house by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Graham was the first dancer to appear at the White House. Graham wrote in the 1937 essay 'A Platform for the American Dance. -
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'Letter to the World.'
The movement depicted is part of Graham's dramatic ballet "Letter to the World," based on the love life of American poet Emily Dickinson. Martha was the role of the dancing poet while Erick Hawkins was the Dark Beloved. It was Graham's first statement of a lone figure who was not an outcast but an artist who gave up an ordinary life for a lonely one in order to find the essence of truth. This ballet premiered at the Bennington College and was deemed a success. -
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'Deaths and Entrances.'
"Deaths and Entrances," which is based on the work of the Bronte sisters, there is a moment when Graham stands tall and stiffly while naturalistically portraying a Victorian woman, then suddenly bends her knees and plunges backward, so her torso is parallel with the floor. When asked what this moment meant, she explained that this is to illustrate how a woman feels when she sees a man she once loved across the room at a party. -
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'Appalachian Spring.'
Aaron Copland’s "Appalachian Spring” captures the essence of an ideal America, one of open fields and endless possibilities. She partnered with Erick Hawkins and had a chorus of females. In her dances, Graham incorporated themes of human conflict and emotions. This was one of Graham's most famous works. -
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Marriage
Graham's marriage was a brief one to the choreographer and first male dancer in her company,Erick Hawkins (they were married in 1948, after nine years of living together).After her split with Hawkins,Graham seemed to not want to teach or work.She was devastated. But in 1950,Graham returned to choreograph the story of Judith,a heroine who lured the enemy of Israel to her tent, seduced him and killed him.This solo piece was an annihilating account of her rage and revenge for her former lover. -
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'A Dancer's World'
"A Dancer’s World", a documentary giving viewers even more of an appreciation for the creative process and witnessing each of the dancers of the school Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance perform in the studio. There are no elaborate costumes or layers of theatrical makeup, just simple leotards as the dancers use their bodies as instruments to show emotion and aspects of the human condition without words. The focus is strictly on dance. -
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'Clytemnestra'
Graham’s masterpiece of contemporary theater and her only full-evening work, the characters and tragedy of the Trojan War. was Graham's first and only full-length work she produced. It was the largest scale of work she choreographed.It was said to be a beautiful, poetic, and tragic tale. Martha was enduring the bitterest of all human emotions: remorse. -
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Retirement
At age 72, Graham retired from dancing. At this time, Martha could barely walk, she departed the stage leaving behind her youth. Even though Graham retired from the stage. She continued teaching and choreographing dances until the age of 90. Martha Graham was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Gerald Ford, as he declared her 'a national treasure.' She was one of the few dancers to recieve this prestigious medal. -
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Death and Legacy.
Martha Graham will pass away from pnuemonia at the age of 97. She will leave a legacy as the Mother of 20th Century Modern Dance. In 1998, she will be named Time's Magazines 'Dancer of the Century.'