Martha Graham

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Martha Graham was born in Allegheny City, later to become part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1894. Her father, George Graham, was an 'alienist', a practitioner of an early form of psychiatry. The Grahams were Presbyterians. Her father was a third-generation American of Irish descent. Graham's mother, Jane Beers, was a second-generation American of Irish, Scots-Irish, and English ancestry, and who claimed to be a tenth-generation descendant of Myles Standish. The Graham family moved to Santa Maria, California, when Martha was fourteen years old. In 1911, she attended the first dance performance of her life, watching Ruth St. Denis perform at the Mason Opera House in Los Angeles. In the mid-1910s, Martha Graham began her studies at the newly created Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, founded by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn, at which she would stay until 1923. In 1922, Graham performed one of Shawn's Egyptian dances with Lillian Powell in a short silent film by Hugo Riesenfeld. Graham left the Denishawn establishment in 1923 in order to become a featured dancer in the Greenwich Village Follies revue for two years. In 1925, Graham was employed at the Eastman School of Music where Rouben Mamoulian was head of the School of Drama. Together Mamoulian and Graham produced a short two-color film called The Flute of Krishna. In 1926, the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance was established, in a small studio on the Upper East Side of New York City. On April 18 of the same year Graham debuted her first independent concert, consisting of 18 short solos and trios that she had choreographed. This performance took place at the 48th Street Theatre in Manhattan. She would later say of the concert: 'Everything I did was influenced by Denishawn.' Graham's technique pioneered a principle known as 'contraction and release' in modern dance. In conjunction with the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, Graham refused the invitation to represent the United States, stating: 'I would find it impossible to dance in Germany at the present time. So many artists whom I respect and admire have been persecuted, have been deprived of the right to work for ridiculous and unsatisfactory reasons, that I should consider it impossible to identify myself, by accepting the invitation, with the regime that has made such things possible. In addition, some of my concert group would not be welcomed in Germany.' Goebbels himself wrote her a letter assuring her that her Jewish dancers would 'receive complete immunity'. Graham nevertheless rejected the invitation. Stimulated by the occurrences of the 1936 Olympic Games, Graham created American Document in 1938. The dance expressed American ideals and democracy. During the performance, excerpts from the U.S. Declaration of Independence, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and the Emancipation Proclamation were read. In 1938, the Roosevelt family invited Graham to dance at the White House, making her the first dancer to perform there. On April 1, 1958, the Martha Graham Dance Company premiered the ballet Clytemnestra, which would become a success. With a score by Egyptian-born composer Halim El-Dabh, this ballet was a large scale work and the only full-length work in Graham's career. Graham choreographed and danced the title role, spending almost the entire duration of the performance on the stage. Graham's last performance is disputed: biographer Agnes de Mille cites her last performance as May 25, 1968, in Time of Snow; biographer Russell Freedman lists the year as 1969; Graham herself lists her final performance as her 1970 appearance in Cortege of Eagles when she was 76 years old. Graham's choreographies span 181 compositions.

Reader's Guide

Martha Graham's significance lies in her creation of the Graham technique, a distinct modern dance vocabulary based on 'contraction and release' that influenced generations of dancers and choreographers. She was the first dancer to perform at the White House, travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction. Her refusal to perform in Nazi Germany in 1936 demonstrated her political and ethical stance, as she stated she could not identify herself with a regime that persecuted artists and noted that some of her concert group would not be welcomed in Germany. She collaborated with many composers including Aaron Copland on Appalachian Spring, Louis Horst, Samuel Barber, William Schuman, Carlos Surinach, Norman Dello Joio, and Gian Carlo Menotti. Her work often addressed American themes, as in American Document (1938), which incorporated texts from the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and the Emancipation Proclamation. Graham also mentored heiress Bethsabée de Rothschild, who founded the Batsheva Dance Company in Israel in 1965, with Graham as its first director. Despite initial resistance to recording her dances, she allowed some photographic documentation, including work with Soichi Sunami in the 1920s, Imogen Cunningham in the 1930s, and Barbara Morgan in the 1940s. In 1952 Graham allowed taping of her meeting and cultural exchange with famed deaf-blind author, activist and lecturer Helen Keller. Graham's legacy includes 181 choreographed works and a lasting influence on modern dance worldwide.

Did You Know?

• Martha Graham was the first dancer to perform at the White House, invited by the Roosevelt family in 1938.
• She refused an invitation to perform at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, stating that some of her concert group would not be welcomed in Germany.
• Graham's only full-length ballet was Clytemnestra, premiered on April 1, 1958, with a score by Egyptian-born composer Halim El-Dabh.
• She choreographed 181 compositions over her career.
• In 1952, Graham allowed taping of her meeting with deaf-blind author and activist Helen Keller, who became a close friend and supporter.