MARTHA GRAHAM

A FREE SPIRIT, MARTHA GRAHAM, WHERE  FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY DANCE, THE SENTIMENTAL AND EXISTENTIAL PATTERNS ARE BEING EXPRESSED THROUGH THE ART OF DANCE AND BECOME ITS DOMINANT FEATURES.


 Modern dance emerged and got established during the period 1890-1950. During this....


period dancing is recreated, new ideas, movements and styles came up regarding the

general view and seizure of dancing. The recreation of dancing could be explained

due to the lack of free movements of classic ballet. Another explanation that could be

given for this recreation is that the societies, the social values, as well as the people’s

needs and desires have changed and as a result the need for the discovery of new

movements and new ways of expression was born. Thereby, this is a period where

new ideas and tensions from personalities that played a significant role to the

evolution of dancing and more certainly of “modern dance” were born.


A whole generation of people, dancers and choreographers are trying to allocate the

present needs of dancing. Isadora Duncan, American dancer was the one who showed

to the public the free dancing with the ancient Greek costumes and refused to dance

“point shoes” declaring to her teacher that ballet positions are too ugly and that they

destroyed the natural beauty of the body. From her saying we may understand what

dancing really meant to her. “My art as a dancer is just an effort to express the truth of

my being in gesture and movement. ( History of Ballet,1980,page:317) and she tried

to achieve it through the inspiration she discovered in the art of ancient Greece rather

than technique. An internal quest is starting regarding the meaning of dancing and

ideological reasons are starting to affect its evolution. Psychological quest start to be

expressed through the art of dancing.

Like Duncan, Maude Allan, a Canadian dancer, was inspired by Greek art and

performed barefoot in flowing gowns in her effort to receive the freedom of the

ancient Greek plastic art. Many artists, dancers, choreographers and inspirations of new

ideas followed such as Ruth Saint-Denis (1878-1968) with her husband Ted Shawn,

Jose Limon (1908-1972), Doris Humphrey (1895-1958), Merce Cunningham (1919), 

Berenice Holmes, Charles Weidman (1901-1975) and Martha Graham. A whole

generation of people was working for the allocation of new mental and physical needs

and questions of that period. One of the greatest personalities of this period, Martha

Graham, contributed to the history of dancing with a complete inheritance of points of

views, perceptions and ideologies concerning dancing. One woman, one inspiration a

restive spirit achieved to alter and offer a unique movement style which has name

“Martha Graham”.

                         

Graham was born in 1894 in Alleghny Country, Pennsylvatnia, and spent most of her

formative years on the west coast. Her father, a doctor specializing in nervous

disorders, was very interested in diagnosis through attention to physical movement.

This belief in the body’s ability to express its inner senses was pivotal in Graham’s

desire to dance. Dr.Graham was particularly interested in the way people used their

bodies, an interest that he passed on to his eldest daughter. In later years, Graham

often repeated her  father’s dictum: “movement never lies.”


As in our lives there is always a calling that gives us the opportunity to discover

something new, Graham had a calling in 1911, when the ballet dancer Ruth St. Denis

performed at the Mason Opera House in Los Angeles. Inspired by St. Denis

performance, Graham decided to become a dance. In 1916 she enrolled to the newly

opened Dennishawn School. From her own words we can understand that this time

was very significant for her life since she remember small details from that night “ I

went to the theater, the Mason Opera House, with a dark dress and a hat my father had

bought for me…He pinned a corsage of violets to may gray dress and that night my

fate was sealed. The curtain parted. The audience was still. Miss Ruth was doing a

program that included her famous solos-“The Cobras” , “Radha” , “Nautch” . Also on

the program was her famous Dance “Egypta”…”. (hhtp://www.cmi.univ-

fr~esouche/dance/Graham2.html).


                            


This meeting with Ruth Saint-Denis was fatal, since Graham had the chance to

discover dancing and them. So, Graham worked together with Ruth Saint-Denis. Ruth

made efforts to teach dance as an which could express a wide spectrum of thought and

philosophy. After having learned a lot in Dennishawn School, as she states, she

received a philosophical belief for dancing and she considered dancing as a means of

communication. So, in 1923 she decide to leave Dennishawn because she had to

search for something new to dance. In the beginning all dancers were delighted with

the promises for a new dancing world, but soon they got disappointed from the way

and behaviours of the people who were trying to create this world. So, they started

searching, each one of them, their own way to express themselves through dancing.

One of the first student that left this school was Graham and then greater personalities

followed such as Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman. When Ruth tried to

discover the culture of foreign countries Graham was trying to discover the human

soul, the human being.




So, she started developing a new technique in dancing which was frequently

improved through her choreographies during her career. She had the power and the

solidity of pioneers, the daring for completely new things. The most special

movement in her technique was “Contraction” and “Relies” which she discovered by

making daily observations on breathing and on the combination of breathing and

movement.


Graham was the beginning of the American modern dance. She brought the

movement and inspiration for the creation of something completely new when

compared to the already existing ones as for example Ballet. With this way she

brought back to dancing the faith that dance is a rite. With her talent and persistence

she managed to create a new School of Dance Technique where the ones who have

enrolled in it are not subject to any standards but it was proved that her method was

capable of being adjusted to any creative hands. Her main technique was that she

avoided to have a standard terminology that used a system of dancing movements.

She used some main movements and sequential techniques that assisted to the

development of the body to its entire spectrum of its capabilities. These techniques

were in contradiction to the calm and imperceptible control which is one of the main

characteristics of ballet were the tense and the effort of the body is in a totally

different situation. According to Graham and her technique, “Technique and Effort”

have to be discovered and to be repeated as they were done for the first time. So, she

limited all the traditional steps and ballet techniques and gave emphasis to the

unfolding of movements from a central core. She invented lots of fallings and lifts

from the floor as well as turns with an axis variation. Basic rhythm for Graham was

the breathing rhythm , the rhythm of the first biological function of life. According to

Graham the conflict is allocated to the inner part of the person. Graham belongs to

those dancers and choreographers who gave much importance and emphasis to the

meaning and function of breathing. Graham believed that all in movement start from

breathing, everything starts and end to breathing, all comes from breathing. The

dancing movements must have as a main starting breathing and its right use.

Graham as a dancer and choreographer always tried to defend the point of view of the

unfolding an discovery of the human nature, through the exteriority of the art of

dancing. She was trying to bare the subconscious, the hidden motives and conflicts when

that determine our actions. She tried to discover and to reveal psychological values of

great roles such as “Clytemnestra” (1958), “Alkistis” , “Faidra”, “Ariadne” and many

others through an internal journey of the soul to the self discovery of characters a

human being and in the following as roles. The existence of these roles had a lot of

theatricality to the contrary to its psychoanalytic background. The exploration of the

modern spirit through a psychoanalytic procedure was the main element for all

Graham’s choreographies. She completed her probing of the psyche through

mythology with “Clytemnestra”. A retelling of Aeschylus’s meditation on

remembrance, revenge and regret, the evening long dance was a highly acclaimed

pageant of colour, motion and violence. Graham, still starring in her own dances, was

sixty-four and she began to put her more famous dances on film, including

“Appalachian Spring” (1959) and “Night Journey” (1960).  

For the transmission of psychological issues, Graham needed a technique that would

make visible the internal site. The movements she introduced were new, original and

had nothing to do with any other dancing style. In the beginning movements were

exclusively strong, short and violent and only later on they were characterized by

some fluidity and delicacy. According to Graham, emotion should never disappear

technique and movements rise from dramatic start. We can see a big desire to seek an

internal discovery of psychological questionings. As a choreographer Graham initially

returned to simple and primitive movements- walking, running and skipping- and

built short mood dances from these fundamentals. Such dances, composed in

collaboration with pianist Louis Horst, established her reputation in New York Dance

Circles. More ambitious pieces featuring the dynamic music of modern composers,

such as “Lamentation” (1930), “Dithyrambic” (1931) and “Primitive Mysteries”

(1931), formalized the Graham style: highly theatrical expression, angular stances,

stylized gestures in the limbs, spare and abstract stage setting. Graham sought to

integrate motifs and innovations in modern art and psychology into dance.  


Graham’s love dancing was remarkable. When observing her life we may easily

allocate aspects of her character where we can see an anxious and very pondering

spirit starting from her life and further to dancing and art. Dancing and life for

Graham was not two parallel ways but to ways that coexist and meet. Dancing for her

was life itself. Her own life shows to us that one person has a lot of internal power.

This can be understood from the fact that even when she was long aged and

notwithstanding the health problems she had to confront she continued to dance and

choreograph, getting past all pain. The power of her mind was so big that she could

create art even when she was very old. Her statement brings us to this conclusion

“The last time  I danced was in cortege of eagles. I was seventy-six years old. I did

not plant to stop dancing that night. It was a painful decision I knew I had to make…”

(http://www.cmi.univ-mrs.fr~esouche/dance/Graham2.html). When she was young

she started having philosophical and existential questions. Probably that could be the

reason why she was so anxious when facing the art of dancing. The fact that she was

never satisfied with the position of dancing as well as its evolution reveals a person

who is trying to discover new aspects of life and art. Her point of view regarding the

dancers are very interesting. She states: “A dancer, more than any other human being,

dies two deaths: The first, the physical when the powerfully trained body will no

longer respond as you would wish. After all, I  choreographed for myself. I never

choreographed what I could not do. I changed steps in Medea and other ballets to

accommodate the change but I knew and it haunted me. I only wanted to dance. 

Without dancing, I wished to die…” (http://www.cmi.univ-mrs.fr~esouche/dance/Graham2.html). A great creator, choreographer, a great dancer

who was not limited to the virtues and glory of life but was also concerned about the

meaning of death. With this way she completed the entire nature of a human being.

Her own words regarding the existence of death in life are “I am asked so often at

ninety-six whether I believe in life after death. I do believe in the sanctity of life, the

continuity of life and of energy. I know the anonymity of death has no appeal for me.

It’s the now that I must face and want to face…” (http://www.cmi.univ-mrs.fr~esouche/dance/Graham2.html). Even when she was old aged her offer to the

art of dancing was precious and all the history of modern dancing is based on the

great achievements of this great creator, Martha Graham.


 

      

BIBLIOGRAPHY


BOOKS

FERDINAND RAINA  (1980) HISTORY FOR BALLET
                                                   ATHENS, 7 GRABIAS STREET


ROBERT TRACY (1996) GODDESS, MARTHA GRAHAM’S DANCERS REMEMBER
                                           118 EAST 30th STREET, NEW YORK


AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, MARTHA GRAHAM (1991) BLOOD MEMORY
                                          LICENSING AGENCY, 90 TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD, LONDON
   

MERLE ARMITAGE (1966) MARTHA GRAHAM
                                         1801 EAST 26th STREET, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK



WEBSITES

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/graham_m.html
(18 .04 .2006)

http://www.gale.com/free_resources/whm/bio/graham_m.htm
(18 .04 .2006)

http://www.pitt.edu/~gillis/dance/martha.html
(18 .04 .2006)

http://www.medaloffreedom.com/MarthaGraham.htm
(18. 04 .2006)

http://www.cmi.univ-mrs.fr/~esouche/dance/graham2.html
(18. 04 .2006)

http://www.exploredance.com/graham041806.php
(18. 04 .2006)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Graham
(20. 04 .2006)

http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/leadership/compass/2001/index.php?itemid=562
(20. 04 .2006)

http://www.arts.cornell.edu/newsletr/spring97/shoes.htm
(20. 04 .2006)

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/1998/98-064.html
(20. 04 .2006)

http://www.umich.edu/~urecord/9394/may09_94/27.htm
(20. 04 .2006)

http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcid/9806/graham.html
(20. 04 .2006)