MARTHA GRAHAM

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BIRTH/DEATH

• Born May 11, 1894, in Allegheny, PA.
• Died of congestive heart failure, April 1, 1991, in New York City.

Early Life
Her father was a doctor who treated people with nervous disorders. When she was ten years old, and after one of her sisters developed asthma (a breathing problem), the family moved to California because the weather was better. Graham became interested in studying dance after she saw Ruth St. Denis (c. 1880–1968) 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. Graham's father died in 1914, after which she felt free to pursue her dream.
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WHY DID MARTHA START DANCING?
In the 1910s, the Graham family moved to California, and when Martha was 17, she saw Ruth St. Denis perform at the Mason Opera House in Los Angeles. After the show, she implored her parents to allow her to study dance, but being strong Presbyterians, they wouldn't permit it.

PART 2

• Still inspired, Martha enrolled in an arts-oriented junior college, and, after her father died, at the newly opened Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, founded by St. Denis and her husband, Ted Shawn. Martha spent more than eight years at Denishawn, as both a student and an instructor.

Inspiration/ Specialize
In 1925 Martha became dance instructor at the Eastman School of Music and Theater in Rochester, New York. She began experimenting with modern dance forms.
Martha’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 (1878–1927), the first modern dancer, had used music to inspire her works, but Martha used music to make her works more dramatic.

Martha’s process of creation usually began with what she called a "certain stirring." Inspiration might come from a classical myth, an event in American history, a story from the Bible, historical figures, current social problems, writings, poems, or paintings. She would then develop a dramatic situation or character to express the feeling or idea. She then found music, or asked for new music from her longtime collaborator (cocreator), Louis Horst, to maintain the inspiration while she created movements to express it. The purpose of Martha’s dance was to bring about an increased awareness of life and a greater understanding of the nature of man. Dance was to her an "inner emotional experience."
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My thoughts:
I really love modern, personally. Martha was a very creative woman. I loved how she would come up with dramatic movement, then found music that goes along with it.

Works cited:
Freedman, Russell. Martha Graham, a Dancer's Life. Clarion Books, 1998.
“Martha Graham Biography.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, www.notablebiographies.com/Gi-He/Graham-Martha.html.
“Martha Graham.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 24 Oct. 2015, www.biography.com/people/martha-graham-9317723.
Mille, Agnes De. Martha: the Life and Work of Martha Graham. Random House, 1991.