Martha Graham

excitement and surge” (Martha Graham). Martha Graham is a famous American choreographer, dancer, and teacher of modern Graham and was an inspiration for many people, not only for a dancer. Also, Martha Graham was the first lady to brought muscle movements in dance and strong emotional story with feelings. Additionally, Graham also knows as “the mother of modern dance.” Her students included many famous people. According to the “About The Dancer article”, “As a teacher, Graham trained and…

also be very different from Ballet. For example, Modern dancing involves contorting, contracting, and a lot of improper posture that would be forbidden in a Ballet class. Martha Graham did an amazing job at turning ballet movement into modern…

choreographies gathered the fame that is today. Martha Graham’s impact on dance was staggering and often compared to that of Picasso’s on painting, Stravinsky’s on music, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s on architecture. Her contributions transformed the art form, revitalizing and expanding dance around the world. In her search to express herself freely and honestly, she created the Martha Graham Dance Company, one of the oldest dance troupes in America. As a teacher, Graham trained and inspired…

follow the rules of ballet. Martha Graham, Isadora Duncan and Merce Cunningham, who are contemporary icons, wanted to show the world freedom in their dances and explore outside of the human body's movement capabilities (Dance Facts, 2017). Contemporary needed to be well known throughout the world, so Martha Graham founded a contemporary based dance company. The Martha Graham Dance Company was founded in 1926 (Martha Graham’s Center of Contemporary Dance Inc). Martha Graham's influential dance…

Dance in the 1920s The 1920s was a turning point for dance and everything around it in this era. This time got the name of the “roaring 20’s” and it was anything, but boring. It was also called the “Jazz Age” which pushed forward more dance and jazz at the time. The 1920s were known for many things such as the parties and flappers, but it is truly a decade that changed dance and how it was viewed. At this time people were trying to find outlets from going through the war, and dance was one…

genres in the arts like ballet, tap, jazz, modern and music. When she was just a year and a half old she was already given piano lessons. Her first dance lesson was at the Vera Lynn School of Dance. During her dancing years, she had lessons from Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham and later, she joined Paul Taylor’s dance company. Even so, she formed her own dance company at quite a young age of 23, Twyla Tharp dance company. She has a way of choreographing as she used the crossover…

Martha was inspired by St. Denis performance at the Mason Opera House and enrolled in an arts oriented junior college and later at the Denishawn School, which was founded by Ruth St. Denis and her husband Ted Shawn to teach techniques world dance. She worked a period of time with Ted Shawn and Martha improved her dancing skills. She is recognized for her first role of an attacked Aztec maiden, “Xochital” and a dance made for her by Shawn. By 1923, eight years after entering Denishawn, she found…

Throughout Martha Graham’s lifetime, the world profound dancer and choreographer redefined modern dance as it was seen at this time. Graham was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, on May 11, 1894. Graham was identified as a pioneer and innovator of modern dance in this era as she rebelled against other creator’s of modern dance. Her influence on modern dance can be seen through the codified system of technique she created. This is likewise perceived through Graham developing choreographies using…

Dance, for centuries, has “been used as communication between the body and the soul,” says Ruth St. Denis, Oriental-modern dancer and mentor of Martha Graham. Throughout the widespread genres of dance, there is always a rich background and purpose. Modern dance, one of the most recently recognized genres, can take many forms, while Dance du Ventre, or belly dancing, has a more narrow variety of moves. However, both have a deep rooting in women’s history and represent the value of a woman and…

Hexantanz, or “Witch Dance” (1914), it’s not hard to deduce - by examining the music and ghostly wardrobe - that the work was heavily influenced by spirituality. Another, arguably less ghostly example of dance that reflects its peripheral culture is Martha Graham’s Primitive Mysteries (1931), which was choreographed after Graham’s trip to Southwest America, where in her creative mind sparked an interest in American Indian region (Bennahum, 81). Modern dance had changed it’s definitions not…