Dance has long been a medium that represents American culture that is constantly evolving and Martha Graham and Frank Gatson Jr. are two of many choreographers that helped developing modern dancing in America.
After watching a lot of videos on how different type of dances emerged in America, I found Martha Graham’s work appealed to me the most because of her expressiveness and intensity in movements. Brought up by a father who was a psychiatrist, her first lesson of dancing was, “Movement never lie. You will always reveal what you feel in your heart by what you do on your movements”. Although I have always been a fan of ballet, I thought the way she danced was genuine and hypnotic and it was very different from other type of dance I have seen before. Martha’s way of dance represents abstract expressionism as she represents herself as woman of posession, believing that she is the chosen one by God to express religion through visual arts. The work of hers that captivated me the most is Frontier, one of her earliest works, where she danced solo in angular positions infront of a bench that is connected to two ropes. It amazes me that at anytime I paused the video, she looked like a white intricate sculpture, graceful yet sturdy. She would always portray the theme of the individual American society through her dances, and in Frontier, she represents “Americans’ progress into the unknown and …show more content…
Rebelling from the classical ballet moves of European and ‘Orientalist’ traditions, she created movements that obey gravity instead of resisiting it like ballet
After watching a lot of videos on how different type of dances emerged in America, I found Martha Graham’s work appealed to me the most because of her expressiveness and intensity in movements. Brought up by a father who was a psychiatrist, her first lesson of dancing was, “Movement never lie. You will always reveal what you feel in your heart by what you do on your movements”. Although I have always been a fan of ballet, I thought the way she danced was genuine and hypnotic and it was very different from other type of dance I have seen before. Martha’s way of dance represents abstract expressionism as she represents herself as woman of posession, believing that she is the chosen one by God to express religion through visual arts. The work of hers that captivated me the most is Frontier, one of her earliest works, where she danced solo in angular positions infront of a bench that is connected to two ropes. It amazes me that at anytime I paused the video, she looked like a white intricate sculpture, graceful yet sturdy. She would always portray the theme of the individual American society through her dances, and in Frontier, she represents “Americans’ progress into the unknown and …show more content…
Rebelling from the classical ballet moves of European and ‘Orientalist’ traditions, she created movements that obey gravity instead of resisiting it like ballet