Martha Graham

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how Graham transformed two areas of American dance: First was classical ballet that dated back several hundred years and included prescribed body positions, defined geometrical relationships among the dancers and, most of all, precision. Second were the folk dances of Asia, Africa and native America, which had long been considered popular art or craft forms instead of high art. The paper looks at her life's work, her contributions and achievements.

From the Paper:

"When she was a freshman in high school, Graham went with her parents to see the early modern dancers Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in Los Angeles and was immediately hooked. She spent her next three summers at their Denishawn dance school and enrolled in the company after completing junior college. In 1920, Shawn created for himself and Graham his most original vaudeville spectacular "Xochitl" about the legends of the New World (Kendall 167). Shawn had already recognized Graham's outstanding dance and theatrical qualities and wanted to feature them. In the play Xochitl dances Salome-like for the emperor, then fights him off as he advances on her in a drunken state. The success of the melodrama was crucial to Graham's future. During her three years at Denishawn, she had begun to develop her new dance movements. "This production gave her the chance to experiment night after night with dynamics-that link between the visible dance shapes and the dancer's inner passion." "

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