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Martha Graham's Legacy by Kathy Stemke

dancekam | Aug 26, 2008 | there are 0 comments 0

Alone on an empty semicircular platform painted white, her straight black hair fell like silken threads of fringe behind an oval face with chiseled cheekbones, deep set dark eyes, and a strong angular jaw. Set in a frozen intensity, her body was poised for imminent action.

A dissonant sound from an unseen source broke the silence.  Instantly, her coiled body released its pent up force;not in great gentle sweeps of motion, but in sudden percussive shock waves that came from the center of her core.  Hard and precise, with little action in her limbs, the contractions and releases sent vibrations through her body and into the surrounding air.  Cutting, intersecting lines, circles, and angles shot out from her small frame in rapid succession.  Yet the feet of this dancer were cemented to the empty stage.

Called simply,"Dance," Martha Graham's solo mystified its audience when it was first performed in 1929. This kind of restrictive staging and movement, her signature approach to dance, was in keeping with her desire to direct her audience to the percussive gestures of her torso, which were the center of her vital action.

As a dancer, choreographer, actress, costume designer, and inventor of a unique dance technique, Martha Graham has made one of the most important contributions to the evolution of Modern Dance in America. She struck the dance world like a thunderbolt in the beginning of the 20th century, when she combined satire, social comment, comedy, tragedy, joy and sorrow with an intense passion for expression.

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tags Modern, Teacher, Enthusiast, Parent, Performance, dance drama, dance technique (all tags)

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