Martha Graham
1894 - 1991
Graham was born on the 11th of May 1894 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania and died on the 1st of March 1991 at 96, with the cause being of old age, at New York City. Graham’s inspiration to dance was to express capacity of the human body and the American life and struggles of the individual. Graham embraced every artistic genre and collaborated with leading people in the visual arts industry, musicians, designers. Some of the leading designers included Noguchi, Hasten, Calvin kKein and Donna Karan
Graham believed in addressing contemporary issues. She told Platform - American Dance magazine, in 1937 “dance reveals the spirit of the country on which it takes root. No sooner does it fail to do this than it looses its integrity and significance.” Graham was part of the Denishawn Dance from 1916 to 1923. In 1926 Graham taught dancers who were interested in creative work. This led to the creation of the Martha Graham dance studio. Over Graham’s lifetime, she created at least 180 dances. Her most important dances were revolt (1927), Immigrant: steerage Strike (1928), chronicle (1936)- hitler invited Graham to perform at the international arts festival and the Berlin Olympics but she turned him down. These dance were inspired by social, political, physiological or sexually themes, Deaths and Entrances (1943), Spring (1946), Dark Meadow (1946), Eran Into The Mouse (1947), American Documents (1938)- this dance had the first male dancer in Martha Graham dance Studio. Graham wanted to reveal the inner man.Her style grew by experimenting with elemental movements and she focused on the basic activities of the human form. Graham had amazing technique and unmistakeable style. Graham is recognised as the one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. She Influenced generations of choreographers, big and small, like Mere Cunningham and she challenged and inspired dancers before and after her death. Graham inspired classical ballet dancers to broader their horizon. In 1986 Graham was given the local one centennial award for dance, the award was only give out once every 100 years. She won the united states highest civilian honour. Graham also won Time magazine’s- dancer of the century and she was the first person to dance in the white house. Graham expanded dances vocabulary of movement and altered the scope of art. |