Creative words of wisdom series #3
Martha Graham
"The unique must be fulfilled."
"I'm going to the top. Nothing is going to stop me and I shall do it alone," said Martha Graham, a determined artist who never allowed a strict upbringing, a late start in her career or harsh critics stand in her way. Armed with determination, a strong sense of self-esteem and a commitment to freeing the body to express primal emotions, she forever changed both the themes and the techniques of modern dance.
Martha Graham, born on May 11, 1894, grew up in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Her father was a psychiatrist who felt movement could provide therapeutic opportunities. Her mother brought Martha up with a strong regimen of daily prayers and Sunday school. Due to Martha's asthmatic condition the Graham family moved to California when she was 14. She did very well academically in high school. However, when Graham saw exotic dancer Ruth St. Denis in performance at the Los Angeles Opera House, she knew she wanted to be a dancer. After attending a junior college to study the liberal arts she enrolled in her very first dance classes at the Denishawn School of Dance. She was twenty-two years old.
Martha Graham formed her own dance troupe in 1926 and began focusing on themes of social injustice and rituals including those based on Asian, African and Native American cultures. She communicated primal emotions through energetic bursts of percussive movement and floor work characterized by taut contractions and releases of the torso. Many reviewers called her work "ugly". Her abrupt angular movements and mask-like face were described as violent, distorted, and oppressive by her critics. But Graham was undaunted. She continued creating her new innovative dance vocabulary. Among her masterpieces were "Frontier" and "Appalachian Spring" both of which were collaborations with Aaron Copeland and "Primitive Mysteries." She also collaborated with set designer Isamu Nogouchi and composer Lois Horst frequently.
Graham described her dancing as "an affirmation of life through movement". She choreographed over 187 separate dances from solo to full-scale works during her career. Her last stage performance as a dancer was in 1968, at the age of 75! She went on choreographing until she was 96. She received the President's Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Arts and danced at the White House for seven different President.
Martha Graham came a long way entering the field of dance at a very late age, with no formal background, an angular face, short legs, an asthmatic condition, and many many critics. But her genius won out through sheer perseverance of her creative process.
