1. MARTHA GRAHAM WCED GRADE 12 REVISION 2012 BORN MAY 11 TH 1894 (117 years ago) DIED 1991 AT THE AGE OF 96

2. EARLY YEARS AND INFLUENCES Graham was born in Pennsylvania USA - America Her father had a huge influence on her life He was a doctor of mentally disturbed patients and was interested in the body’s ability to express emotions Once when Graham was a little girl, her father caught her telling a lie. When she asked him how he knew she was lying, he told her that her movements gave her away

3. Graham’s father was very interested in body movement and what it said about a person She inherited this interest Graham used this idea later as a dancer & choreographer

4. After the show, she begged her parents to allow her to study dance The Graham family then moved to California They were very religious Presbyterians and would not permit her to dance When Graham was 17, she saw Ruth St. Denis perform in Los Angeles

5. Graham was not put off by her parents lack of support and stayed determined to continue with dance as a career She enrolled at an arts- orientated junior college After her father died, she enrolled at the Denishawn School of Dancing founded by Ruth St. Denis and her husband, Ted Shawn who then become a major influence in her new career

6. At the age of 22, she could now finally begin to receive her basic dance training and begin her dance career… Although she was a late beginner, her determination and intelligence caught the attention of Ted Shawn

7. Graham spent more than eight years at Denishawn

8. In 1915 Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn were pioneers of the modern dance movement They wanted to free dance from the confines of classical ballet and world dance This idea was to be continued by Graham who combined extreme emotions with technical movements

9. Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn were just about the coolest married couple back in their day They met when he saw her perform and he was blown away!!! He auditioned to be her male partner on her next tour They then fell in love THIS ALL HAD A MAJOR IMPACT ON THE YOUNG MARTHA GRAHAM

10. Graham often danced as Ted Shawn’s partner Remember these were early days and this was all very new to the dance world

11. Graham soon got tired of Denishawn’s decorative style and felt that “… the old forms could not give voice to the more fully awakened man” Graham left the Denishawn School and moved to New York She began to work in experimental dance techniques that would change the ideas of movement in dance forever

12. After 10 years of dancing for others, Graham performed her first solo concert and created The ‘Martha Graham School of Modern Dance’ as well as forming her own Dance Company in 1926

13. EARLY YEARS OF GRAHAM’S DANCE COMPANY Her all-female dance company was unpaid Her performances had no sets/ designs She designed & sewed all the costumes herself Over time she gained more and more financial support and respect from the public Her company then began to included male dancers

14. Graham married Eric Hawkins A dancer in her company with whom she was deeply in love with The marriage was short lived and caused her great suffering

15. Her career can be summed up as a search for self-expression which developed into the creation of the Martha Graham Dance Company which still continues today and has given birth to many famous dancers & choreographers

16. Martha Graham constantly pushed boundaries She danced violently but performed everything with the utmost amount of style

17. Graham worked with many great talents over the years She trained many of the most important dancers in contemporary dance However, just as she created her own style, many of her students went on to offer their own interpretations of contemporary dance

18. Throughout her career, Graham continually fine- tuned her style and training method As new generations of dancers attended her school, she was presented with new abilities Her choreography and training method changed in order to fit these new dancers Graham’s 180 dance works reflected the rapidly changing world Her style always involved the concept of contraction and release

19. CONTRACTION AND RELEASE Humans often express themselves without words … When you are waiting for a late bus, how do you stand? When you are about to give a speech in front of the entire school, how do hold yourself? If you made a goal in a soccer game, how would you react?

20. Martha Graham was fascinated by answers to questions like these and how the body moves She noticed that breathing plays an important role in helping the body express emotion Graham believed the body never relaxes, but instead is constantly giving off energy

21. How do you breathe? Here are some images of contraction and release in other moments of life

22. THE MARTHA GRAHAM STYLE Her style is composed of strong, angular movements Contraction and release Controlled falling to the floor/ use of gravity Percussive movements, floor work, leaps, and jumps A Graham dancer is a combination of an athlete and an actor In order to prepare for a performance, each dancer has to study their character A dancer also has to be in very good physical condition to perform Graham’s difficult movements Graham’s performances almost always told a story Some of her works were based on Greek myths or on actual events Others explored emotions such as grief or love

23. CAREER AS A CHOREOGRAPHER Graham has been said to be the one that brought dance into the twentieth century She evolved the meaning of dance into something more abstract and creative She revolutionised the dance world and created what is known today as contemporary dance Now, dancers all over the world study and perform contemporary dance Choreographers and professional dancers look to her for inspiration The Martha Graham Dance Company is the oldest dance company in America and continues to perform today

24. “I wanted to begin not with characters or ideas, but with movements... I wanted significant movement I did not want it to be beautiful or fluid I wanted it to be fraught with inner meaning, with excitement and surge.” Martha Graham

25. INFLUENCES IN GRAHAM’S CAREER Two men would be very close collaborators throughout her life Isamu Noguchi: created beautiful set designs with three-dimensional objects that would replace flat backdrops Together Graham and Noguchi revolutionised set design through this inclusion of sculpture Louis Horst, a close friend, was a strong influence on her music and choreographic choices throughout her career

26. Martha Graham in ‘Cave of the Heart’ Stage set designed by Isamu Noguchi 1946 A current version of the same work

27. Martha Graham and May O'Donnell set by Isamu Noguchi ‘Hériodiade’ 1944 “Judith” - stage set designed by Isamu Noguchi for Martha Graham, 1950

28. Martha Graham, Erick Hawkins and the Martha Graham Dance Company in Martha Graham's "Appalachian Spring" set design by Isamu Noguchi

29. GRAHAM WOULD ALSO HAVE A MAJOR EFFECT ON COSTUME DESIGN IN YEARS TO COME– SHE CREATED ALL HER OWN DESIGNS

30. IMPORTANT INFLUENCES IN GRAHAMS CHOREOGRAPHIC CAREER Graham believed in showing her visions and work through emotional/ real movements She believed these physical expressions gave meaning to spiritual and emotional understandings - ignored before in other dance forms This was influenced by leading writers of psychology of the day - e.g. Jung

31. Graham’s Dark and Sad Years When Graham finally retired from performing, she went through a stage of depression that threatened her life after an attempted suicide In the years of her absence from the stage she went into a deep depression This was filled with images of young dancers performing all of the roles she had choreographed for herself and her former husband Graham's health decreased as she was abusing alcohol to calm her pain

32. "It wasn't until years after I had relinquished a ballet that I could bear to watch someone else dance it. Yet how can you avoid it when you look on stage and see a dancer made up to look as you did thirty years ago, dancing a ballet you created with someone you were then deeply in love with, your husband? I think that is a circle of death" Fortunately she recovered to choreograph for 18 more years until her death

33. AWARDS ‘Time’ magazine listed her as "Dancer of the Century" 1998 - one of the most important figures in the 20th century President Ford and Martha Graham admire the MEDAL OF FREEDOM presented to her at the White House in 1976 This medal is America’s highest civilian award

34. It is nearly impossible to track the influence of Martha Graham She is universally understood to be the twentieth century’s most important dancer, and the mother of contemporary dance Her contributions to the art of stage design and dance production are countless Her continued experimentation and attention to human emotion are one of the greatest individual achievements in dance history

35. Graham’s lines and movements were not classical but were as real as a heartbreak Real … which is why years after her death this woman is still worthy of mention and studying

36. Martha Graham said… "I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way

37. Graham continued choreographing until her death in New York City in 1991 She died of pneumonia at the age of 96 She was cremated Her ashes were spread over the mountains in Northern New Mexico

38. Graham continued to dance professionally into her 60’s and choreographed until her death She left behind a legacy of inspiration not only for dancers but for artists of all kinds