Martha Graham, sometimes referred to as the “mother of modern dance” and the “Picasso of dance”, was an American modern dance performer and choreographer from Pennsylvania who had a profound impact on dance. Graham studied at Denishawn as a teenager and eventually in 1929 opened her own company as well as creating her own technique which even now, years after Graham’s death is still universally recognisable and is still taught in this present day. Her contributions allowed the art form to transform and expand all over the world into modern dance as we know it “and her advances in dance are considered by many to be an important achievement in America’s cultural history.” (Martha Graham Biography, 2016) To many people, she was and still is a …show more content…
It was in Graham’s dramaturgical phase that “Graham developed a way to evoke both the visible and invisible on stage” (Franko, 2012, p.7). This enabled Graham the opportunity to create works which would be visually attractive and successful but also allowed her to involve disguised messages, normally of a political or personal nature. Inner struggle was a common theme used by Graham as she took a psychoanalytical viewpoint on dance (Giguere, 2013). A well-fitted example of this is “Lamentation”, a dance created in 1930. In this piece the use of costume is extremely important, she wears a tube-like piece of material which looked as though she was trapped within it. The visible stretches which appeared whilst she sharply contracted which rebelled against the ballet traditions (Exibhit, 2004) is a visualisation of inner struggle which could be interpreted as if she was trying to escape from within her own skin. At the time of its premier America was in the Great Depression, “the longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the western industrialized world” (The great depression, 2009), many people became unemployed and some even homeless. It was during the great depression that Graham’s works “gained popularity and relevance” (Exhibit, 2009). This is …show more content…
This is when she used inspiration from the narrative stories of Greek mythology. The process of choosing each theme was an extensive process, Graham would often take a year or more to fully research the topic in order to find a “personal relevance but also their universal significance” (Foster, 1986, p.27). It was in this phase that Graham pushed the audience into subconsciously relating to the theme that is being confronted through the dance, she wanted each member of the audience to take an individual perspective. She achieved this by “deflecting the viewer’s attention from meanings personal to Graham by focusing attention on the universalizing narrative and its mythological symbolism, which induced the viewer to project their own life experiences into the choreography.” (Franko, 2012, p.8). Around the time of 1947 Graham and Hawkins’ relationship became intimate, also at this time a new dance of Graham’s was premiered, “Night Journey”. The dance was based around the Greek myth of Oedipus, a boy who had married his mother, however the piece was more concentrated on his mother, Jocasta. The age gap between Graham and Hawkins resembles that of Oedipus and his mother, which could be the personal connection for this dance. In the story of Oedipus when people find out about his relationship with his mother she kills herself, it is in this moment which the dance is