IN HER OWN WORDS
“A dance reveals the spirit of the country in which it takes root. No sooner does it fail to do this than it loses its integrity and significance.” (1937)
“I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It’s permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable.”
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. (…) You do not have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.” (1943, to Agnes de Mille)
“I know some women of 16 who are old. They have settled themselves very nicely, and that’s going to be the height of their adventure. Naturally, I don’t agree. I’m still hungry for every sensation I can get.” (1975, aged 81)
“Every dance is a kind of fever chart, a graph of the heart.”
“Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.”
IN OTHERS’ WORDS
“Dancer of the century”
Time magazine (1998)
“As a dancer, Martha helped form my body. As a woman of independent thought, she helped form my mind.”
Betty Ford (1991)
“She triumphed with the changes she brought to the world of dance. For those of us who were lucky enough to call her a friend, she was an inspiration.”
Liza Minelli (1991)
“She was wonderfully self-critical and she had the absolute integrity of a great artist. She was also fantastic with students. She gave them a moral basis for their work, as well as aesthetic insight and technical virtuosity.”
Composer William Schuman (1991)
“We idolized Martha so much we wanted to learn how she did it, and what she did, to get closer to her work.”
Woody Allen (2015), who joined her class for a couple of months in the 1970s.
BIOGRAPHY
Martha Graham (1894-1991) was one of a succession of female pioneers of American Modern Dance, the lineage of which is taken to include Loie Fuller, Isadora Duncan, Ruth St Denis (who was one of Graham’s own teachers).
Graham is recognised as one of the key artists of the 20th century. She created her own dance vocabulary based on the expressivity of the human body developed from her experimentation with contractions and release. Her innovations were clearly shown in her 1930 solo Lamentations. Many of her works were inspired by American themes (Frontier (1935), El Penitente (1940) and Appalachian Spring (1944)) or were dramatic works based on myths; Errand into the maze (1947), Clytemnestra (1958). She worked with a range of composers, visual artists and designers throughout her career.
Her influence was so great she became a mainstream cultural figure, appearing in famous advertising campaigns like Blackglama’s What Becomes a Legend Most? and Apple’s Think Different (after her death).
KEY COLLABORATORS
Aaron Copland, Isamu Noguchi, Antony Tudor, Samuel Barber
TAUGHT AND CHOREOGRAPHED ON
Merce Cunningham, Alvin Ailey, Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, Glen Tetley, Betty Ford, Woody Allen
LEARN MORE
In Praise of Graham and her Legacy to Dance, New York Times (1991)
Martha Graham: The Dancer Revealed
Video: Martha Graham rehearsing her company dancers
Martha Graham Dance Company