Martha Graham
May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991
Martha Graham
Martha Graham is recognized as a primal artistic
force of the 20th Century alongside Picasso,
Stravinsky, James Joyce, and Frank Lloyd Wright. In
1998 TIME Magazine named Martha Graham as the
"Dancer of the Century," and People Magazine
named her among the female "Icons of the Century."
As a choreographer, she was as prolific as she was
complex. She created 181 ballets and a dance
technique that has been compared to ballet in its
scope and magnitude. Many of the great modern
and ballet choreographers have studied the Martha
Graham Technique or have been members of her
company.
Graham- The Beginning
Martha Graham was born
in Alleghany,
Pennsylvania in 1894.
Her father George Graham
was what in the
Victorian era was
known as an "alienist,"
an early form of
Psychiatry.
Martha Graham – The Beginning
The Grahams were strict Presbyterians. Dr. Graham
was a third generation American of Irish descent and
her mother Jane Beers was a tenth generation
descendant of Puritan Miles Standish. They were a
proper family in the upper echelon of Pittsburgh
society. While the social status in which she was
raised contributed to her access to education and
refinement, it would also work against Martha as the
eldest daughter of a prominent physician would be
strongly discouraged from considering any career in
the performing arts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Graham
Martha Graham- The Beginning
Graham moved with her family to California
when she was 14. Three years later, she
attended a Los Angeles recital by the dance
pioneer Ruth St. Denis. It was the first dance
performance of any kind that Graham had
ever seen, and it overwhelmed her; in 1916
she joined Denishawn, the school and
performing troupe that St. Denis co-led with
her husband Ted Shawn. At 22, dangerously
late for an aspiring dancer, Graham had found
her destiny.
Martha Graham- A New Way
After seven years with
Denishawn, Graham
moved to New York
City and struck out
on her own, giving
solo recitals and
eventually launching
her own company, in
1929.
Martha Graham- A New Way
In 1926, Martha Graham founded her
dance company and school, living and
working out of a tiny Carnegie Hall studio
in midtown Manhattan. In developing
her technique, Martha Graham
experimented endlessly with basic
human movement, beginning with the
most elemental movements of
contraction and release.
Martha Graham- A New Way
Using these principles as the foundation
for her technique, she built a vocabulary
of movement that would "increase the
emotional activity of the dancer's body."
Martha Graham's dancing and
choreography exposed the depths of
human emotion through movements
that were sharp, angular, jagged, and
direct.
Martha Graham- A New Way
The dance world was
forever altered by
Martha Graham's
vision, which has
been and continues
to be a source of
inspiration for
generations of dance
and theatre artists.
Modern Vs. Contemporary
Graham actually despised the term
"modern dance" and preferred
"contemporary dance." She thought
the concept of what was "modern"
was constantly changing and was
thus inexact as a definition.
Graham Choreography
Martha Graham's ballets were
inspired by a wide variety of
sources, including modern
painting, the American frontier,
religious ceremonies of Native
Americans, and Greek
mythology. Many of her most
important roles portray great
women of history and
mythology: Clytemnestra,
Jocasta, Medea, Phaedra, Joan
of Arc, and Emily Dickinson.
Graham Choreography
In 1936, Graham made her defining work,
"Chronicle", which signaled the beginning of a
new era in contemporary dance. The dance
brought serious issues to the stage for the
general public in a dramatic manner.
Influenced by the Wall Street Crash, the Great
Depression and the Spanish Civil War, it
focused on depression and isolation, reflected
in the dark nature of both the set and
costumes.
Graham Choreography
Martha Graham choreographed 181 works in her lifetime.
Among these are such well known ballets as Heretic (1929),
Lamentation (1930), Primitive Mysteries (1931), Frontier
(1935), Deep Song (1937), El Penitente (1940), Letter to the
World (1940), Deaths and Entrances (1943), Appalachian
Spring (1944), Cave of the Heart (1946), Errand into the Maze
(1947), Night Journey (1947), Diversion of Angels (1948),
Seraphic Dialogue (1955), Clytemnestra (1958), Embattled
Garden (1958), Phaedra (1962), Frescoes (1978), Acts of Light
(1981), The Rite of Spring (1984), Temptations of the Moon
(1986), and Maple Leaf Rag (1990).
Graham’s Collaborations
As an artist, Martha Graham conceived each new work
in its entirety — dance, costumes, and music. During
her 70 years of creating dances, Martha Graham
collaborated with such artists as sculptor Isamu
Noguchi; actor and director John Houseman; fashion
designers Halston, Donna Karan and Calvin Klein; and
renowned composers including Aaron Copland, Louis
Horst (her mentor), Samuel Barber, William
Schuman, Carlos Surinach, Norman Dello Joio, and
Gian Carlo Menotti.
Graham’s Students
Her company was the training ground for many
future modern choreographers, including
Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and Twyla
Tharp. She created roles for classical ballet
stars such as Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev,
and Mikhail Baryshnikov, welcoming them as
guests into her company
Contract and Release
The contraction serves as the foundation of Graham
technique. Graham developed the idea from
observing the physical manifestation of grief in the
body. It is one of the fundamental characteristics of
her choreography and as such, most of Graham
exercises were created with the contraction in mind.
While Graham was the creator of the contraction,
the move has become a staple of modern dance and
has been used, altered, and redefined by many
subsequent choreographers.
Contract and Release
A Graham contraction begins from the pelvis and
travels up the spine, lengthening the space between
each vertebra, up to the neck and head, which
remain in line with the spine. Each contraction is
accompanied with an exhalation of breath. To the
inexperienced eye, a contraction may look like a
sucking in of the gut or a hunching over of the torso.
However, any change in the rib cage, shoulders, or
neck, is a result of the building of the contraction
from the pelvis and occurs automatically when it has
been performed correctly.
Contract and Release
The release is the counter to the
contraction. It occurs on the inhalation of
breath. A release also begins from the
pelvis and travels up the spine to return
the torso to a neutral, straight position.
Contract and Release
A second type of release, called the high
release occurs when a dancer opens their
breastbone to the sky and seems to rest their
torso on an invisible shelf beneath the
shoulder blades. The rib cage maintains
alignment over the hips with no break in the
lower back. The head remains in line with the
spine.
Spiral
A twisting of the torso around the spine, or spiral, is
another fundamental part of Graham technique. Like
the contraction, the spiral begins in the pelvis and
travels up the spine to the neck and head, although
the head always stays in line with the spine. The
changes in the torso take places as a cause and effect
process as the spiral moves up from the pelvis. The
lower spine must move before the shoulders which
move before the neck, etc. As the dancer releases
from the spiral and returns to a neutral position, the
movement, again, originates from the pelvis and
travels upwards.
Graham Technique Class
All Graham classes spend approximately 30-45
minutes performing exercises on the floor at
the beginning of class. Much like a ballet
technique class, there is a progression of
specific exercises, each which can be altered
to fit the ability level of the class. The floor
work is especially focused on the use of the
contraction/release and the spiral.
Graham Technique Class
The middle of class is spent on center work
with a set of standard exercises to warm up
the legs and feet and to get the dancers
moving. The rest of the class is spent applying
the concepts learned in the beginning of class
to combinations that move across the floor.
Choreography from Graham dances may
sometimes be used during this portion of the
class to demonstrate the intersection of
technique with repertory
Graham Company
Founded in 1926 the
Martha Graham
Dance Company is
the oldest and most
celebrated
contemporary dance
company in America.
Graham Company
Since its inception, the
Martha Graham Dance
Company has received
international acclaim
from audiences in over
50 countries
throughout North and
South America, Europe,
Africa, Asia, and the
Middle East.
The Martha Graham Center of
Contemporary Dance
Martha Graham Center
of Contemporary
Dance is located in
New York City and is
the headquarter to the
Martha Graham School
of Contemporary
Dance and the Martha
Graham Dance
Company.
Sources
http://marthagraham.org/company/
http://www.time.com/time/time100/artists/pro
file/graham.html
http://contemporarydance.suite101.com/article
.cfm/martha_graham_dance_technique
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Graham_C
enter_of_Contemporary_Dance