Martha Graham(1894 — 1991)
Martha Graham
États-Unis
9 min read
Martha Graham (1894-1991) was an American dancer and choreographer, founder of modern dance. She revolutionized the art of choreography by breaking away from classical ballet, developing a technique based on contraction and release of the body.
Famous Quotes
« Movement never lies. »
« The body says what words cannot express. »
Key Facts
- 1894: Born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania
- 1926: Founded the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York
- 1930: Creation of 'Lamentation', an iconic work of modern dance
- 1944: Creation of 'Appalachian Spring' with music by Aaron Copland, awarded the Pulitzer Prize
- 1976: Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States
- 1991: Died in New York at age 96, having created more than 180 choreographies
Works & Achievements
A choreographic solo in which Graham, encased in a tube of jersey fabric, embodies universal grief through twisting and contracting movements. This eight-minute piece is considered one of the founding works of modern dance.
A triptych inspired by Native American and Catholic rituals from New Mexico, hailed as a masterpiece from its premiere. The work illustrates Graham's ability to draw on non-European cultural sources to renew the language of dance.
Graham's first work to weave historical American texts — including the Declaration of Independence — into the choreography. A true artistic manifesto, it asserts the plural, democratic identity of the nation at a time of fascist threat.
Commissioned by the Library of Congress with a score by Aaron Copland and sets by Isamu Noguchi, this piece celebrates pioneer life in America. The score won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945, and the work is now a symbol of American cultural identity.
Inspired by the Greek myth of Medea, this piece explores jealousy and romantic revenge with visceral intensity. Isamu Noguchi's sets and Graham's performance showcase her mastery of ancient myth as a vehicle for exploring psychological interiority.
Graham's first full-evening ballet, drawn from Aeschylus's *Oresteia*, explores guilt and redemption through Clytemnestra's eyes in the Underworld. Considered the pinnacle of her dramatic work, it reveals the full depth of her art of dance-theater.
Martha Graham's final creation, choreographed at age 96 to the music of Scott Joplin, this light and playful piece bears witness to her undiminished creative vitality until the very end of her life. It proves that modern dance is not condemned to solemnity alone.
Anecdotes
Martha Graham didn't discover dance until she was sixteen, when she attended a performance by Ruth St. Denis in Los Angeles. This late revelation — unusual for a professional dancer — didn't stop her from becoming the most influential figure in American modern dance. Her father, a physician, used to say that the body never lies — an intuition that would become the philosophical cornerstone of her entire technique.
In 1930, for her piece *Lamentation*, Martha Graham appeared on stage wrapped in a tube of stretchy jersey fabric, leaving only her face, hands, and feet visible. This radical costume, which sculpted and distorted the body, deeply shocked audiences accustomed to classical ballet. A tearful woman approached her after the performance and told her she had never seen anyone express her own grief so faithfully.
As Nazism rose to power, the German government invited Martha Graham to perform at the **1936 Berlin Olympics**. She refused outright, declaring that no true artist could lend their name to such a regime. This courageous stand earned her lasting admiration in American artistic and intellectual circles.
The collaboration between Martha Graham and composer **Aaron Copland** gave birth to *Appalachian Spring* in **1944**, commissioned by the Library of Congress. The sets were designed by sculptor **Isamu Noguchi**, exemplifying the fusion of the arts that defined Graham's work. The score won the **Pulitzer Prize** in **1945**, cementing the piece as a symbol of American cultural identity.
Martha Graham continued to choreograph long after she stopped dancing, creating new works well into her eighties. Her final creation, *Maple Leaf Rag*, was performed in **1990** to the music of **Scott Joplin** when she was 96 years old. She proved that an artist can remain creative until the very end of their life — the body may fade, but the vision endures.
Primary Sources
I believe that we learn by practice, whether we do something well or not. The way to learn is assuredly to try everything, to do everything, to participate in everything that stirs our curiosity.
Movement never lies. It is a form of truth we cannot afford to lose in our world of false appearances.
Dance is the hidden language of the soul. It is a communication of humanity to humanity through the body, that instrument which we all have in common.
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost.
Key Places
Martha Graham's hometown, where she grew up in a middle-class family. It was here that her physician father taught her the importance of body language — a principle that would guide her entire artistic approach.
Founded in 1926 in Manhattan, this studio was the laboratory where Graham developed her revolutionary technique and trained generations of dancers. It remains to this day the world center for the transmission of the Graham technique.
Graham taught her technique here for decades, shaping an entire generation of choreographers and dancers. This legendary institution allowed American modern dance to gain international academic recognition.
Graham deposited her archives here and received the commission for *Appalachian Spring* in 1943, sponsored by the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation. The library holds one of the most significant documentary collections on her work.
During her first European tour, Graham performed in Paris, where French artistic circles gave her an enthusiastic reception. This recognition definitively established American modern dance as a major art form on the world stage.