Martha Graham was an America modern dancer who also been termed as the “Picasso of Dance.” Her dancing career was unprecedented. In 1926 when she was 32, she established the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary. She stated that her peculiar dances was influenced by Denis Hawn. In that period her dance focused on depression and influenced by the Wall Street Crash and the great depression. In 1958 her company performed the ballet Clytemnestra, which is the only full length perform in her career. She not only brought the modern dance into 20th century, but also influenced the music and custom of modern dance. In the article The Harsh and Splendid Heroins of Martha Graham, Sigel mentioned that Graham’s theater is priceless because her theater “is more than a vehicle for her own performing power and intelligent, more than her psychological insights or particular way she developed nonverbal structures.” she was also the first dancer to perform at the White House and received the award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Her works impressed me the most, compare to other pre-modern and modern artists.
Link to Martha Graham's Dancing Company
Critical Review of Martha Graham:
Martha Graham Lives, and Is Interviewed
This is about a 70-minute re-enactment of a 1963 conversation between Graham and the dance critic Walter Terry of New York Times.
According to this post, I realized that Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence of Picasso on modern visual arts, and Graham also was the first dancer to perform at the White House, travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and receive the highest civilian award of the US.
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