Martha Graham Research Paper

Claudia Gordon, the first deaf woman with African decent to be an attorney in the United States was an important figure head. To talk about her, however, we have to look deeper, towards some of her actions.

Dance has come a long way since it first began, and that road has been paved by different styles and choreographers. Modern dance is one of the biggest contributions to dance today. It all began with the rebellion against classical ballet. If it wasn’t for Modern, many aspects and styles of dance would not exist today. Also, without choreographers we would have no dance. One of the most influential Modern choreographers is Twyla Tharp.

Recognized as two of the greatest, most profound choreographers of the 20th century Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey forever changed the history and future of American Modern Dance. Both choreographers have such inspirational backgrounds that enhance the emotions throughout their pieces. In the peak of their careers, they fulfilled their accomplishments and goals. Being that they were both American choreographers, their work was different for the most part but was similar at some point. Martha Graham created a movement language based upon the expressive capacity of the human body.

At the end of the 19th century, ballet was the most prominent form of dance. However, to Isadora Duncan, "ballet was the old order that needed to be overthrown, an embodied symbol of all that was wrong with oversymbolized 19th century living" (Daly 26). Duncan believed that the over-technical, over-standardization of ballet was not what dance should be about. Her vision of dance was one of emotions, ideas, social betterment, and the complete involvement of the body, mind, and soul (26). With these ideas in mind, she began to create a new form of dance; what she referred to as the "new dance" (23), and what is now known as modern dance. In creating this new dance, she was inspired by composers such as

Cathy freeman an Australian track and field athlete was the first ever aboriginal commonwealth games gold medalist. Cathy was born on February 16th 1973, in Slade Point MacKay Queensland. She is now 43 years if age.

Maria W. Stewart, a “black abolitionist, feminist, author and educator” originating in the nineteenth century, can be considered as one of the most influential women in history (African American Registry). Known for writing articles for William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper, The Liberator, Stewart became the first American woman, who also happened to be black, to deliver multiple speeches to an audience from a public platform. Between writing about anti-slavery to spreading her opinions through four powerful speeches in Boston, Massachusetts, Maria Stewart is unquestionably worthy and qualified to be the subject of a film or documentary due to the fact that she was “the first woman in America to address mixed gender and race audiences on the topic

Mary Haydock, now formally known as Mary Reibey was born on the 12th May 1777 (source 1) and was raised by her grandmother after both her parents died when Mary was of a young age. Mary was convicted of horse stealing at the age of 13 and was to be sent to Australia for seven years (source 1). Being sent away from her family and in particular her grandmother, meant that Mary was alone and isolated from the people that she would have felt most comfortable around. This lack of belongingness may have caused Mary Reibey depression which was common for convicts of such a young age.

Graham's style of modern dance was never seen in America before. Therefore, the audience had to get accustomed to it (Switzer 108). People often defined modern dance as a contrast to ballet, but Graham's new modern dance style moved away from the strong ballet traditions. Anyone could see that Martha was not afraid of being unique. For example, music was not required in all of her dances. Without the music, the audience would then be able to hear the sounds of the dancer (Microsoft Encarta). In the dances that did have music, Graham expressed herself in metaphors or images (McLanathan and Brown 173). These dances involved posture, role of gravity, and character movements. Graham's style was considered prominent among other performers.

At the age of 29, Samuel Huntington married Martha Devotion on April 17, 1761. She was the daughter of the Rev. Ebenezer Devotion and Martha Lothrop in Norwich.

Since the beginning, Americans have valued their independence and self-reliance. Parents teach independence to children at a young age. In American society, parents also teach children that if they need help, to ask for it. A large part of American Heritage has been that of an opportunistic and entrepreneurial country. Americans strive to cross the threshold from their poor upbringings to high social and economic status through hard work and personal ambition. America is an innovative country, fixated on new ideas and improvements to old ideas. The production of new thinking, determination, and hard work has been ever-changing function. Americans are independent, innovative, and opportunistic largely due to the concept of time conscious. They

The essay, An Athlete Of God by Martha Graham, has the most convincing argument over The God Who Embraced Me by John W Fountain and There Is No God by Penn Jillette. Graham states as her believe statement, “I believe that we learn by practice” (Graham 84). This belief statement perfectly shapes how her whole essay is going to be. It says that by practicing, you can get good at what you want to get good at. In the other essays, the essays do not have a very convincing argument because they do not list the principles for why their belief statements are true unlike An Athlete Of God does. Graham also states, “In each it is the performance of a dedicated precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense

She studied different types of dance and incorporated them into her own technique. “Called the matriarch of black dance her groundbreaking repertoire combine innovative interpretation of caribbean dances,traditional ballet, African rituals and African American rhythms to create the Dunham technique” (“Katherine Dunham Biography” 2). Dunham technique is continued to be taught at schools and companies all over the world. Her travels to other countries always inspired her choreography. “She is credited for bringing caribbean and African influences to a European-dominated world” (“Katherine Dunham Biography” 2). Dunham’s use of different world influences innovated dance and created more significant choreography. Dunham not only changed how she danced; she created an entirely new

"American Masters: Martha Graham, About the Dancer." PBS. PBS, 16 Sept. 2005. Web. 17 Nov. 2012. .

Dance is an ever evolving form of art; in much the same way that one can categorize and differentiate between eras and styles of architecture one can also do so with dance. These eras at times have sharp delineations separating them from their antecedents, other times the distinction is far more subtle. Traditional forms of dance were challenged by choreographers attempting to expand the breadth and increase the depth of performance; preeminent among such visionaries was Seattle born dancer and choreographer Mark Morris. Mark Morris' began as one of the millions of hopeful individuals attempting to simply make a career in dance; he not only succeeded but managed to have a lasting effect on the entire landscape of dance.

Watching the video “A Dancer’s World” made me want to become a professional dancer. Martha Graham’s dancers showed how delicate, defined, sharp, smooth, and astatic a choreography can be. It illustrated how much hard word and dedication it’s needed, but the results will always be beautiful. Also Martha Graham explained how dancing with a partner can be. She also talked about males as dancers, but in her video she demonstrates how men danced with females using physical contact. The techniques and how the piece turns out to be. Both genders jumped a lot through out each piece of performed and that’s something loved. During a piece, there can be both gender dancing separately doing their own thing. The techniques are used differently by males