Apart from choreographing various ground-breaking performances, Martha Graham also developed a dance technique based on the principles of contraction and release. Her innovative approach to movement changed the way dance is taught and practiced across the world, which is why many people refer to her as the mother of modern dance. Graham’s influence on dance has been compared to the influencers of Picasso on visual art. Here are 15 facts about Martha Graham.
1. Her Father Was a Psychologist
Martha Graham was born in Pittsburgh in 1894. She was the oldest of several children. She described herself as a willful child who did not respond well to authority. Her father was a psychologist, which gave young Martha the chance to see the links between body language and the emotional state of a person. As it turned out, this influenced the girl who would later become a world-famous dancer more than any dance technique. The expression of the emotional through the physical ended up being the center of Martha Graham’s work. During her childhood, Graham also developed a keen interest in Greek mythology and Native American culture.
2. She Loved Elephants
Graham loved observing the movement of animals. According to her memoir, her observations of a lion pacing in his cage helped her learn about the transition of gravity. She also compared the wrath of a wronged woman with that of a lioness. In the book, she also mentioned her encounters with elephants. Her family took her to a circus, which also hosted an exhibition of wild animals. To the shock of her parents, the young Martha Graham crawled straight into the cage of one of the elephants. Luckily, the elephant did not attack or step on her. Years later, Graham had a similarly close encounter with a wild elephant who ran towards her while she was visiting an African savanna. Once again, the elephant left her unscathed.
3. She Started Taking Dance Lessons Relatively Late
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According to legend, Martha Graham decided to become a dancer the day she first saw Ruth St. Denis perform in 1911. A few years later, she joined the Denishawn School Of Dancing, which Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn ran. Given that most professional dancers start training at a much younger age, Graham´s future as a dancer did not look particularly bright. She was not allowed to perform, and her teachers prepared her for the prospect of becoming a dance teacher instead.
Graham did not let that stop her, though and she continued to practice in secret. When one of her colleagues fell ill, Martha was ready to prove that she could dance the part. After this incident, she was finally allowed to dance with the rest of the company. One of the first roles she played was the role of the Native American girl Xochitl.
4. She Was Not Allowed to Go on Tour Once
Although Martha Graham received some positive reviews during her public appearances with the Denishawn School Of Dancing, she remained an outcast. This was partly because her black hair did not fit into the look of blonde hair and blue eyes the school was looking for in their dancers. When the company was asked to tour abroad, Martha was told that she could not participate, because she looked too oriental. When given the choice to dye her hair blonde to fit the bill, Graham refused.
5. She Danced With the Greenwich Village Follies
Martha Graham’s father died when she was still a teenager, leaving the formerly wealthy family in a financially precarious position. To support her family financially, Martha Graham decided to leave the Denishawn School Of Dancing and find a job with the Greenwich Village Follies. Although this gave the young dancer a chance to perform various solos each night, she resented the fact that she had to work as an entertainer. This led to several conflicts. While she did not have to participate in the showgirl group numbers, the management of the company kept trying to convince her to wear a showgirl costume while taking her bow at the end. They even tried cutting some of her solos as a way of coercing her into wearing a revealing costume, but Martha remained stubborn.
6. She Founded the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
After spending two years dancing with the Greenwich Village Follies, Graham convinced the impresario to let her put on her own performance. The performance she ended up making made it clear to everyone that Martha needed to pursue her own work. In 1926, she opened the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance in New York. What followed was a life dedicated to an investigation into the foundations of the human psyche and its expression through movement.
7. She Created a Dance Technique
Copying what already existed in the world of dance was not enough for Graham. She did not want her dances to be beautiful or decorative. Instead, she wanted every movement to come from the core of the dancer’s being. Starting with herself as the object of investigation, she explored a way of dancing that started on the floor and used breath as the foundation for all its movement. By doing so, she created a way of dancing that was deeply connected to the dancer’s emotional core and used the principles of contraction and release as their basis. Today, this technique is taught in dance schools across the world and has become one of the pillars of contemporary dance.
8. She Collaborated With Soichi Sunami
While her movement technique continues to influence the world of dance to this day, her use of set design was just as innovative. Instead of relying on flat set pieces, Martha started using abstract sculpture as parts of her stage designs. She shared a lifelong collaboration with the Japanese-American artist Soichi Sunami, who designed the sets for her performances.
9. She Became an Icon of Female Empowerment
Martha Graham never called herself a feminist. And yet, her unapologetic approach when it came to revolutionizing the dance world has turned her into an icon for those who celebrate female empowerment. The members of her company were mostly female, and her interpretations of Greek tragedies and their powerful heroines uncovered many of the patriarchal stereotypes concerning women. She created performances based on the myths about Medea, Clytemnestra, and Phedra.
10. She Refused to Perform at the Olympic Games
Martha Graham was stubborn when it came to standing up for her values. When one of the theaters she performed in refused to let Black audience members enter the auditorium, she threatened to cancel the performance. In the end, everyone was allowed to enter. On another occasion, she refused the invitation to perform at Nazi Germany’s Olympic games.
Despite receiving a letter from Joseph Goebbels himself, Martha stated that she would find it impossible to dance in Germany at that time. Shortly after, she created a performance called American Document, which many interpret as expressing values of democracy and freedom. But the piece was much more than a patriotic celebration of American ideals. Her inclusion of a solemn Native-American section at the beginning made it clear that she was aware of the true origins of her home country.
11. Her Dancing Was Considered Obscene by the Establishment
In her autobiography, Martha claimed that she never liked to discuss religion, sex, or politics. However, she was well aware that sexual energy was a powerful force. In her training, she actively encouraged her dancers to “move from the vagina” and insiders quickly nicknamed her school the house of the pelvic truth. While she did liberate the body from its many constraints, this did not go down well with some of the more conservative members of American society. An American Congresswoman even tried to ban one of Graham’s performances. But the USA was not the only place in the world where governmental agents recognized the subversive power of her work. There was a period during which the Soviet Union refused to give her a Visa, claiming that her work would corrupt the young.
12. She Danced at the White House
Although Martha Graham refused to make her work fit into the political expectations of the time, this did not stop her from getting national and international recognition for her contributions to dance. In 1938, she was invited to perform at the White House. She was actually the first dancer to receive this honor. Graham was also the first dancer to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction.
13. She Married Erick Hawkins
Martha Graham was an empowered woman who enjoyed having love affairs with various men. She did not want to get married at first, but this changed when she fell in love with the dancer Erick Hawkin, who happened to be the first male dancer to join her company. After eight years of living together, Hawkins asked her to marry him and she reluctantly agreed. As it turned out, this was the beginning of the end.
Over the years that followed, their relationship started to become difficult. They ended up separated for several years and they got divorced in 1954. According to her autobiography, Hawkins found being in the shadow of such a powerful woman hard. He tried to build an artistic identity of his own, but despite Graham’s support in such endeavors, his attempts found little success. These frustrations eventually led to the dissolution of their relationship. Although Graham was deeply heartbroken after their breakup, the two continued to work together for many years. Their relationship is yet another proof that Graham’s devotion to her artistic work was greater than her ego.
14. She Taught Many Famous Artists
Celebrities like Betty Davis, Woody Allen, and Madonna were among her many students. She also collaborated with the world-famous ballet dancers Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Merce Cunningham, who also went down in history as one of America’s most important choreographers, studied and danced with her for several years.
15. Martha Graham Danced Until She Was 76
Martha Graham did not want to stop dancing, and she continued to do so until she was 76 years old. Life without dance was meaningless to her. Upon retiring, the artist quickly fell into a deep depression. As a way of alleviating her pain, she started drinking. Things got so bad, that she eventually had to be hospitalized.
To the surprise of everyone around her, she not only regained her energy but she also went back to her company. While she did not go back to dancing, she resumed her work as a choreographer. During the last years of her life, she choreographed ten dance pieces and several revivals. In 1991, shortly after completing her autobiography, she died of pneumonia. She was 96 years old.
