Martha Graham

The Life of Martha Graham

She lived for almost a hundred years, and spent the majority of them dancing. Not only did she create and perform for the love of it, but she managed to revolutionize the face of the modern dance community in an impressive number of ways.

She is considered by many in the dance world to be one of the greatest choreographers of the 20th century, and this title was earned through the development of a new "language" of movement and interpretation that came to be known as modern dance.

While popular styles, such as ballet, often showcased the disciplined abilities of a dancer's body after years of training, modern dance portrays the power of human emotions, exhibiting levels of rage and passion never before exhibited on a live stage.

Graham also held the unique distinction as the first dancer asked to perform at the White House, and she was also a recipient of the Medal of Freedom, the highest award a civilian can ever earn. With a choreography career spanning over seventy years, it is no wonder Martha Graham achieved such great success in the creative world.

Martha Graham was born in Pennsylvania, where her father was a psychiatrist. She grew up extremely upper class, and moved to Southern California when she was a teenager. She fell in love with dance at the age of sixteen, after seeing her first formal dance performance, and decided to commit her life to the arts. Her parents were not happy, as she was expected to go on to an affluent career much like her father, and her staunch religious background also did not allow much room for such creative nonsense.

However, she did not let this discourage her and she went on to grow in her chosen craft and began to experiment with edgy choreography that had never been seen before. She moved to New York in the 1920s, and worked as a dancer on Broadway. While in New York later working as a teacher, she began to seriously choreograph her own pieces, further breaking out of the box.

She met her share of critics, as many of her audience members didn’t know how to react to these sort of dances they had never seen before. Modern dance is based on sharp movements and precise timing – the complete opposite of the fluidity and grace found in ballet. As a pioneer in the craft, Graham did not only have to create the first of modern dance pieces, she also had to create its first audiences.

Eventually her efforts paid off, as Graham went on to be one of the founders of the dance department at the Juilliard School, and went on to win international acclaim in her own dance company.

Despite her great level of success, Graham battled with many personal demons. Following her first initial retirement from dance, she slipped into a destructive depression that landed her in the hospital. However, she overcame it and brought herself both out of rock bottom and retirement, going on to choreograph more pieces. She wrote dances until her death at the age of 96 in 1991. She was honored as “Dancer of the Century” by Time Magazine several years later.

Her Influence Today

Graham’s modern dance pieces continue to be performed today, both within her own company, as well as in studios and troupes all over the world. The mark she left on the dance world is irreversible, and young dancers continue to be raised up and trained in the Graham style of Contemporary movement.

Perhaps one of the reasons Graham’s works live on, is due to the fact she based her dances in reality. She danced out pain, passion, trial and tribulation. Joy, sadness, fear and victory. She let the stories of her life dictate the steps, rather than the other way around. Dancers continue to envy her unique abilities and her penchant for something so difficult, and yet she made it look so easy.

When Martha began seriously dancing at the age of 20, she was told by a dance studio she was too old to start on the path of becoming a dancer. Fortunately, Graham was never one to listen to the advice or opinions of others – and the rest is history.