Martha Graham is inspiring for so many reasons. A strong woman moving the field of dance forward into a more expressionistic era and one of the leaders creating the modern dance movement as we know it today. Her influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on the modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.
Martha was born in 1894 in Pennsylvania to George & Jane Graham. After moving to Santa Barbara, California, sometime in the early 1910s, Martha began attending the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts. It was there her passion and technique were discovered, encouraged and began to flourish. Several years later, after her very own independent concert she said, “”Everything I did was influenced by Denishawn.”
She danced and choreographed for over seventy years, creating 181 industry changing dances. Martha was the first dancer ever to perform at the White House, travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and to receive the highest civilian award of the USA: the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She received Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts as well as being given the Key to the City of Paris to Japan’s Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. Martha also was awarded the Local One Centennial Award for dance given only once every 100 years.
After changing the face of contemporary dance, and living an impactful, inspiring, full life, Martha passed away in 1991 at the age of 96.
For me she faced her fears and made a commitment to her self expression and introducing a new form, despite when she faced much criticism for breaking the rules.
“I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It’s permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable.” — Martha Graham
