Martha Graham Essay

Throughout history, current Dance has been pioneered by inspirational choreographers such as Isadora Duncan and Martha graham. Martha whole wheat flour in particular, revolutionised the dance attention with her legion(predicate) choreographed works. By experimenting with foreign movements and establishing the fundamental technique in Modern Dance, Martha Graham clearly show this salient dance style as a sensitive form of life. Her style, created from raw emotion, challenges the technical barriers of traditional concert dance and has evolved into todays contemporary dance form.Born into a privileged life in 1894 tight-fitting Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, Graham was inspired from her father being a specialised physician interested in the authority the human dust moves. In 1915, she studied dance with Ted Shawn and Ruth St Denis, the innovative teachers at Denishawn. She then go to the Greenwhich Village Follies for two years to establish her lengthy career. Living in a time of m isconceived ideas, Martha Graham used her dancing genius to represent the many issues in American society in an cabbage form.Martha Grahams technique is classically based but tweaks the usual symmetrical body co-occurrence with sharp, precise and angular shapes. Grahams moves communicate through the dancer, her emotion and stance on American complaisant issues. These moves are expressed through contraction, release, spirals, flexed hands and feet, rolls, flexion and suspension, clenched fists, fall and rec everywhere, curl and twist. Her remark for creating movements was breathing and the way she could emotionally express how she felt about life. The contraction starts from the pelvis and travels up the spine.This curvature in the upper body is developed from an exhalation of breath. The release brings the body back to a achromatic position with an inhalation of breath. All of the dancers in her company have an extremely strong core and economize flexibility even though streng th is the dominating component. To train the dancers, Graham would often perform classes with average floor work to strengthen the technical elements (contract, release and spiral) as well as learning control. here the discipline of dance was drilled before allowing the freedom of performing.Graham was quoted, Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the beau ideal desired. Her experimental technique allowed her manoeuvretic view on life to be performed through Modern Dance. wiz of Grahams theatrical works Night Journey, displays her established technical elements of modern dance. Inspired by Sophocles Greek Tragedy, the dance begins with King Oedipus and his Queen Jacosta complementing each other in their arms.As the dynamics in the music develop, intruding onto the stage are six chorus members (Daughters of the Night) in a grieving state. Lunging fore in a contraction with their fists covering their eyes, they repeat this sequence around the stage recovering to a release in between each contraction. As the contraction is a Graham interpreted figure of the human emotion grief, this has been consequently used multiple times throughout. Showing locomotion in agreement as they clench their fists and flex their hands demonstrates this pleading state.These movements, contractions, releases, developpes, attitudes and shuffling of feet, depict the women as vulnerable to sexy desires. Graham was quoted, The body is your instrument in dance, but your art is outside that creature, the body. The expression of the upper body is sharp and angular with the reoccurring contraction and release. Non-locomotor movements are often in isolated poses of fear positioned around the males. At the time, women were often discriminated against not having the same power as men.Graham has used this theme to display the social inequality sending a message that men have be en in control of women for centuries and that women need to go around free. The males use dominating gestures throughout, with the blind-seer Tiresias, portraying power and purpose with the repetition of arabesque promenades and high levels. These foreign movements have expressed the themes in a dramatic way developed from her dance style. In this Greek themed performance, the women wore long opprobrious dresses with stripes down the side and crown-like head pieces. King Oedipus wears a simple black tunic revealing most of his body.Tiresias dresses in a black flowing coat, carries a wooden staff, and wears mask to show he is blind. Tiresias uses this wooden staff to indicate his wisdom and this symbolizes truth. The silk rope used to hang Queen Jacosta symbolises the connection to Oedipus from deliver til death. The music is an extension to the dancers and enhances this performance dramatically. Wild, fierce and harsh would be a way to describe William Schumanns dynamic instrume ntal score. The dancers reacted with the music emotionally as well as physically increasing the boilersuit effect of the performance.This choreographic style has allowed modern dance to communicate lifes emotions through drama intertwining with physical movement and relationships. Martha Graham has created countless choreographic pieces that have revolutionised the traditional outlook on dance. The Martha Graham Company was established in 1926 and is still a leading company to date. She has pioneered the Modern Dance industry by creating the fundamental technique and applying it to her 181 choreographed performances. Martha Graham has created a dance style to express a new form of life which has changed the dance world forever.