Alwin Nikolais (November 25, 1910 in Southington, Connecticut – May 8, 1993) was an American choreographer.

Life[link]

Nikolais studied piano at an early age and began his performing career as an organist accompanying silent films. As a young artist, he gained skills in scenic design, acting, puppetry and music composition. It was after attending a performance by the German dancer Mary Wigman that he was inspired to study dance. He received his early dance training at Bennington College from the great figures of the modern dance world: Hanya Holm, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Louis Horst, and others.

In 1940, in collaboration with Truda Kaschmann, his first modern dance teacher, Nikolais received a commission to create Eight Column Line, his first ballet. The work was presented at one of the events of Hartford social season that counted Salvador Dalí and Léonide Massine as honorary patrons and was well received.

After teaching two years at his own studio and touring the US with dancers from Hanya Holm's company, Nikolais did active duty in the Army during World War II as a master sergeant in criminal investigation. Nikolais relocated to New York City following the war and resumed studying with Hanya Holm. Eventually, he became Holm's assistant, teaching at her New York school and at Colorado College during the summers. In 1948, Nikolais was appointed director of the Henry Street Playhouse,which had been left in a state of transition and had to be entirely re-established. He formed the Playhouse Dance Company, which was later renamed and known as the Nikolais Dance Theatre. It was at Henry Street that Nikolais began to develop his own world of abstract dance theatre, portraying man as part of a total environment. Nikolais redefined dance, as "the art of motion which, left on its own merits, becomes the message as well as the medium". He Stated "The Province of art is to explore the inner mechanisms and extra dimensional areas of life and, out of the exploration, to produce its findings translated into the form of the artist's media." It was also at Henry Street Playhouse that Mr. Nikolais was joined by Murray Louis, who was to become a driving force in the Playhouse Company, Nikolais' leading dancer and longtime collaborator.

In 1956, the Nikolais Dance Theater was invited to its first of many appearances at the American Dance Festival. With this, his total dance theatre had begun to take shape, and the company established itself in the forefront of American contemporary dance. With the company's 1968 Paris season at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Nikolais' impact on dance grew internationally. Following Paris, the company began performing around the world. Here began a long artistic relationship with the Théâtre de la Ville which began in 1971 and continues now after his death.

In 1978, the French National Ministry of Culture invited him to form the Centre Nationale de la Danse Contemporaine in Angers, France. In December 1980, he created his 99th choreographic work Schema, for the Paris Opera. At the same time, his choreography for an opera by Gian Carlo Menotti was being staged at the Vienna Staatsoper.

In 1987, Nikolais was awarded the National Medal of Arts, bestowed by President Ronald Reagan, and the Kennedy Center Honors, conferred during a three-day round of official Washington events, which culminated in a CBS telecast featuring the Nikolais Dance Theater. Alwin Nikolais gave the world a new vision of dance and was named the "father of multi-media theater." ^[1]He received the City of Paris' highest honor, the Grande Medaille de Vermeille de la Ville de Paris, as well as medals from Seville, Spain, Athens, Greece, and 30 other cities both foreign and national as well as a special citation from New York City's Mayor, which he shared with Murray Louis. Often referred to as the American Patriarch of French modern dance, Nikolais is a knight of France's Legion of Honor and a commander of the Order of Arts and Letters.

His accolades from the world of arts and letters included the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award; the Capezio Award; Circulo Criticos Award, Chile; Emmy Citation Award; Dance Magazine Award; the Tiffany Award; and the American Dance Guild Award. In 2000 he was inducted into the National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame.

Nikolais was granted five honorary doctorate degrees, was twice designated a Guggenheim Fellow, and was the recipient of a three year creativity grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Mr. Nikolais and his work have been featured in numerous films and television programs in the US and abroad. In July 1987, Nik and Murray, a feature-length documentary film about Nikolais and Murray Louis, directed by Christian Blackwood, aired on the PBS series American Masters.

Nikolais was renowned as a master teacher, and his pedagogy is taught in schools and universities throughout the world. He died of cancer May 8, 1993, in New York and is buried in Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

Nikolais purchased the first Moog analog synthesizer system.

His style[link]

Nikolais employed lights, slides, electronic music, and stage props to create environments through which dancers moved and, more important, into which they blended (Dance Magazine). He would commonly use props with esthetic as well as functional purposes, for instance, a traveler moving across the stage would hide a crossing and simultaneously create a volume of motion. His production MASKS, PROPS, and MOBILES was accredited to have created and popularized modern multimedia theater (Mazo, Joseph), although, some critics rejected Nikolais work as dance, especially when Nikolais transformed the bodies of dancers by covering them in plastic bags that would stretch and change shapes in Noumenon; a section from Masks, Props and Mobiles (1953). He avoided overused themes like psychosexuality, good vs. evil, or heroes and heroines.Instead, he chose to move away from the life of the individual and focus on group action. He preferred also to develop his own style of movement, and not to replicate the moves of previous time periods or other composers.

Nikolais' artistic mandate was for meaning to be conveyed strictly through movement. He characterized his stage presentations as “decentralizing” the dancer, so that humans were only one of the theatrical elements on stage.Alwin Nikolais despised of modern dance’s obsession with self.^[2] Nikolais’s dance technique is a barefoot one, a tradition handed down from the days of Isadora Duncan, who, we are told, took off her shoes in empathy for the ancient Greeks. However, Nikolais does not use bare feet out of homage. To him the bare foot is practical. Its muscular and tactile functions are essential to the performance of the total body. Nor does he utilize the bare foot and then ignore it. Apparent mutilation of the body design by the termination of the costume may disturb the image and when it does, he uses whatever device will serve his aesthetic. Many such devices are primary to the concept. In “Discs,” the opening dance in Kaleidoscope, the dancers wear large colored aluminum discs on one foot, which serve in various aesthetic capacities. Originally intended simply to extend the dancer’s range of balance by providing a larger than normal base, they also add a vertical extension as a great “toe shoe” might; they increase motional dynamics with their added weight in swinging. The shape, color, and material were aesthetic decisions, producing moving visual elements in themselves, and the heavy aluminum gives a satisfying, large, loud clang when the dancers stomp the floor. In a section of Stratus and Nimbus (1961) and again in Scenario the dancers wear small sound-producing fiberboard circles on each foot. The use, the material, and the size of these “tappers” were aural decisions. The specific sound was the initial criteria. Although they are not seen, they do alter kinetic values by the manner in which the dancers must move to produce the desired sound. ^[3]

In the 1950s a black face in a cast caused a sensory blocking. The theatergoer saw race, and all the social implication that race bore at that time. Whether positive or negative vibrations ensued in the spectator’s sensorium made little difference to Nikolais. The spectator whose senses were preoccupied with racial differentiation was not perceiving Nik’s images. Hence, his early treatment of the face was concerned not only with varying its uni-statement but also with preventing audiences from experiencing this sensory blocking. He used makeup: purple, red, green, yellow, half a face one color—half another, as in Kaleidoscope; or strips of color following the costume design, as in Prism; or he used whiteface, as in Imago. This use of makeup does not create character, but rather design, and is a part of the total concept of the dances in which it occurs.^[4]

He was notoriously well known in the dance industry because of his use of lighting. He would use light sources from every direction and level to create new shapes, spaces, and silhouettes. With his modern, new style, he felt that most music was ill suited for it. He went back to his days as an early musical composer and designed his own score on electronic tape. Within the Henry Street Playhouse, the tapes would be played over a seven speaker system distributed throughout the room to give another time and space dimension. The combination of cast, original lighting and music, with modern dance techniques, gained The Nikolais Dance Theatre a world-renowned reputation in the theatrical arts. Receiving high regards from New York State Council on the Arts, Hofstra University, Rutgers University, Duke University, Hunter College, and Brigham Young University. With his own school and theatre, he withdrew from the spotlight of the dance world, known amongst colleagues and peers as a shy, reserved individual, allowing his partner Murray Louis to deal with more public affairs. Mr. Nikolais was renowned as a master teacher, and his pedagogy is taught in schools and universities throughout the world.^[5] Nikolais, referring to his students: "Each student is encouraged toward the highest aesthetic values, and upon creative fluency and achievement, as well as technical skill. The job of the teacher is to pursue, institute and constantly anticipate the best possible activities coinciding with this idealistic thesis."

Some famous works of art[link]

The first production by Nikolais, after the creation of the Henry Street Playhouse, was called KALEIDOSCOPE and premiered at the American Dance Festival. It aired in the spring of 1956 and showcased his company of seven dancers, intensively trained by him, for the past 7 years. The next production to follow PRISM, BEWITCHED, AND CANTOS was an improvisational performance by the dancers that utilized mirrors and the specific use of score and lighting. The act was performed on four separate occasions and was different each time. TOTEM, an act centered on religion and fetish with an element of barbarism, was performed at the Fifth Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. The act received serious criticism. Following this, Nikolais went the complete opposite direction for his next performance, IMAGO. This act was meticulous and orderly; the performers were placed in similar make-up and headdress to accentuate unity. A much larger production, SANCTUM, showcased 27 performers, compared to the standard 10-15 Nikolais commonly used. This act dealt with opposites: natural vs. man-made, reality vs. imagination, primitive vs. sophisticated. The performance sold-out for 6 straight weeks in New York.

Bibliography[link]

• Francesca Pedroni, Alwin Nikolais, Palermo, L'Epos, 2000. ISBN 88-8302-143-6
• Dance Theatre of Alwin Nikolais, Company Publications, Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis Papers, MSS. 181: Alden Library, Ohio University. Mazo, Joseph. "The Nik of Time." Dance Magazine July 1993: p.28.

Sources[link]

• National Museum of Dance
• Dance Magazine

http://artsalive.ca/en/dan/meet/bios/artistDetail.asp?artistID=21 http://bearnstowjournal.org/theaterAN.htm https://www.library.ohiou.edu/archives/dance/overview/nikolaisbio.html

References[link]

1. ^ https://www.library.ohiou.edu/archives/dance/overview/nikolaisbio.html
2. ^ http://artsalive.ca/en/dan/meet/bios/artistDetail.asp?artistID=21
3. ^ http://bearnstowjournal.org/theaterAN.htm
4. ^ http://bearnstowjournal.org/theaterAN.htm
5. ^ http://www.artsourcemanagement.com/nikolais.htm

External links[link]

http://www.danceheritage.org/nikolais.html https://www.library.ohiou.edu/archives/dance/overview/nikolaisbio.html http://www.artsourcemanagement.com/nikolais.htm http://artsalive.ca/en/dan/meet/bios/artistDetail.asp?artistID=21 http://bearnstowjournal.org/theaterAN.htm

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Murray Louis (born November 4, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American modern dancer and choreographer.

History[link]

Murray Louis was born on November 4, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. He is known as one of the most influential American modern dancers and choreographers. He grew up in Manhattan near Henry Street where he would later attend class at the Henry Street Playhouse and also start his company. He was one out of five children and his mother died when he was eight years old. He was then sent to an orphanage until he was twelve. At this time his sister Ethel, who was studying dance at the time, took him to many modern dance concerts.^[1] He graduated from Samuel Tildon High School in 1944.

Louis was discharged from the Navy in 1946 and began to live in San Francisco, California.^[2] He then enrolled at Colorado College for a summer session conducted by Hanya Holm in 1949. It was there during one of their workshops where he met Alwin Nikolais, who would later become his mentor and life long partner. That year he moved back to New York to pursue a Dramatic Arts degree at New York University and attend class with Nikolais at Henry Street Playhouse. Louis made his debut as the lead soloist in Nikolais’ newly formed Playhouse Dance Company (which would late be renamed the Nikolais Dance Theater).^[3]

Career[link]

Louis was chosen as Associate Director to Nikolais and together they created the Nikolais/Louis dance technique, which would become a major influence to dance and still exist to this day. Louis founded his own company in 1968 known as the Murray Louis Dance Company. His company was then chosen to represent the U.S. State Department on a two-month tour of India in 1968. In 1972 he piloted the “Artist in School” program. He also created two works for Rudolph Nureyev to debut on Broadway in 1978. Louis additionally worked in television in the United States and Europe. In 1984 the Murray Louis Dance Company collaborated with the Dave Brubeck Quartet and had four very successful seasons, which were broadcasted in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Some of his choreographed works include Pulcinello for Batsheva Dance Company for Israeli television and The Tales of Cri-Cri for Mexico City television. In July 1987 PBS televised Nik and Murray, an award winning documentary film by Christian Blackwood, in their American Masters series. The Princeton Book Publishing Company released a video called Murray Louis in Concert, a collection of solos in 1989.

Louis also had his collection of essays, Inside Dance, published by St. Martin’s Press and released a five-part film series, Dance as an Art Form, whish is now used as an introduction series for Educational Arts programs in the United States.^[4] A Cappella Books published his second book of essays, On Dance. Louis’s and Nikolais’ dance companies merged in 1989.^[5] On May 8, 1993 Louis’s most influential mentor and partner, Alwin Nikolais, died. Louis did not dance for 2 years after Nikolais’ death. In 1995 his company performed at Carnegie Hall for 10,000 children during their “LINK” program and in 1996 he completed a five-part video series titled, The World of Alwin Nikolais.

Work & Accomplishments[link]

Louis had many accomplishments and received copious amounts of awards, recognitions, and honorary degrees. He received the Dance magazine award in 1977, which was presented to him by his former dance instructor Hanya Holm. He also received a Thank You letter from Harry Truman, the Colorado Contemporary Dance Award, two John Simon Guggenheim Fellowships, and the Scripps/American Dance Festival award (June 18, 2006). In 1998, he was selected as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar for a “distinguished lecture” tour of twelve universities and colleges in the United States. Louis received his first Honorary Degree from Indiana University in 1970, his Honorary Doctorate of Performing Arts from Ohio University in 1999, his second Honorary Degree from Rutgers University in 2000, and his third Honorary Degree from Boston Conservatory in 2004. In 1998 Louis started assembling his archives and they are now available at the Ohio University’s Vernon R. Alden Library in Athens, Ohio.^[6] He has created over 100 works (including 70 ballets), performed in 20 nations and every state of the United States, and has toured five continents. He is one of the few choreographers to dance in his own creations and a variety of composers have produced music for him and his performances. He has also choreographed to the music of Bach, Brahms, Schubert, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, and many others. Some of the companies he has choreographed dances for include: The Royal Danish Ballet, The Jose Limon Company, The Hamburg Opera Ballet, The Scottish Ballet, The Berlin Opera Ballet, and The Cleveland Ballet.^[7]

Louis speaking of his choreography once said, “I don’t have a style. I come out of dance itself. I operate the principles of dance the way I talk. I get a point of view. Each piece has its own identity. It’s what choreography is all about.”^[8]

Murray Louis continues to live and work in New York City, New York.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Nikolais-Louis Foundation for Dance, Inc.
• American Masters: Murray Louis at PBS.org
• The Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis Dance Collection at Ohio University

External links[link]

• Nikolais-Louis Foundation for Dance, Inc.
• American Masters: Murray Louis at PBS.org

Martha Graham
Martha Graham by Yousuf Karsh (1948)
Born	(1894-05-11)May 11, 1894 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	April 1, 1991(1991-04-01) (aged 96) New York City, New York, U.S.
Nationality	American
Field	Dance and choreography
Movement	Modern dance
Influenced by	Eleonora Duse
Influenced	Paul Taylor
Awards	Kennedy Center Honors (1979) Presidential Medal of Freedom (1976) National Medal of Arts (1985)

Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts,^[1][2] Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.^[3]

She danced and choreographed for over seventy years. Graham was the first dancer ever to perform at the White House, travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and receive the highest civilian award of the USA: the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In her lifetime she received honors ranging from the Key to the City of Paris to Japan's Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. She said, "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."^{[citation needed]}

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Graham was born in Allegheny City, which today is part of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1894. Her father George Graham was what in the Victorian era was known as an "alienist", a practitioner of an early form of psychiatry. The Grahams were strict Presbyterians. Dr. Graham was a third generation American of Irish descent and her mother Jane Beers was a tenth generation descendant of Puritan Miles Standish.

In the mid 1910s, she began her studies at the newly created Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, founded by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn,^[4] at which she would stay till 1923.

New era in dance[link]

In 1925, Graham was employed at the Eastman School of Music where Rouben Mamoulian was head of the School of Drama. Among other performances, together they produced a short two-color film called The Flute of Krishna, featuring Eastman students. Mamoulian left Eastman shortly thereafter and Graham chose to leave also, even though she was asked to stay on.

In 1926, the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance was established. On April 18 of the same year,^[4] at the 48th Street Theatre, Graham debuted with her first independent concert, consisting of eighteen short solos and trios that she had choreographed. She would later say of the concert "Everything I did was influenced by Denishawn."^[5][6]

One of Graham's students was heiress Bethsabée de Rothschild with whom she became close friends. When Rothschild moved to Israel and established the Batsheva Dance Company in 1965, Graham became the company's first director.

In 1936, Graham made her defining work, "Chronicle", which signaled the beginning of a new era in modern dance.^{[citation needed]} The dance brought serious issues to the stage for the general public in a dramatic manner. Influenced by the Wall Street Crash, the Great Depression and the Spanish Civil War, it focused on depression and isolation, reflected in the dark nature of both the set and costumes.

In 1938 Erick Hawkins was the first man to dance with her company. The following year, he officially joined her troupe, dancing male lead in a number of Graham's works. They were married in 1948. He left her troupe in 1951 and they divorced in 1954.

Her largest-scale work, the evening-length Clytemnestra, was created in 1958, with a score by Egyptian-born composer Halim El-Dabh. She also collaborated with composers including Aaron Copland on Appalachian Spring, Louis Horst, Samuel Barber, William Schuman, Carlos Surinach, Norman Dello Joio, and Gian Carlo Menotti.^[7] Graham's mother died in Santa Barbara in 1958. Her oldest friend and musical collaborator Louis Horst died in 1964. She said of Horst "His sympathy and understanding, but primarily his faith, gave me a landscape to move in. Without it, I should certainly have been lost."

There were a few notable exceptions to her dances being taped. For example, she worked on a limited basis with still photographers Imogen Cunningham in the 1930s, and Barbara Morgan in the 1940s. Graham considered Philippe Halsman's photographs of "Dark Meadows" the most complete photographic record of any of her dances. Halsman also photographed in the 1940s: "Letter to the World", "Cave of the Heart", "Night Journey" and "Every Soul is a Circus". In later years her thinking on the matter evolved and others convinced her to let them recreate some of what was lost.

Martha Graham with Bertram Ross (1961)

Graham started her career at an age that was considered late for a dancer. She was still dancing by the late 1960s and her works from this era included roles for herself which were more acted than danced and relied on the movement of the company dancing around her. In her biography Martha Agnes de Mille cites Graham's last performance as the evening of May 25, 1968, in a 'Time of Snow'. But in A Dancer's Life biographer Russell Freedman lists the year of Graham's final performance as 1969. In her 1991 autobiography Blood Memory Graham herself lists her final performance as her 1970 appearance in "Cortege of Eagles" when she was 76 years old.

In the years that followed her departure from the stage Graham sank into a deep depression fueled by views from the wings of young dancers performing many of the dances she had choreographed for herself and her former husband. Graham's health declined precipitously as she abused alcohol to numb her pain. In Blood Memory she wrote:

It wasn't until years after I had relinquished a ballet that I could bear to watch someone else dance it. I believe in never looking back, never indulging in nostalgia, or reminiscing. Yet how can you avoid it when you look on stage and see a dancer made up to look as you did thirty years ago, dancing a ballet you created with someone you were then deeply in love with, your husband? I think that is a circle of hell Dante omitted.

[When I stopped dancing] I had lost my will to live. I stayed home alone, ate very little, and drank too much and brooded. My face was ruined, and people say I looked odd, which I agreed with. Finally my system just gave in. I was in the hospital for a long time, much of it in a coma.^{[Full citation needed]}

After a failed suicide attempt she was hospitalized. Graham not only survived her hospital stay but she rallied. In 1972 she quit drinking, returned to her studio, reorganized her company and went on to choreograph ten new ballets and many revivals. Her last completed ballet was 1990's Maple Leaf Rag.

Graham choreographed until her death in New York City from pneumonia in 1991, aged 96.^[8] She was cremated, and her ashes were spread over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico.

Influence and legacy[link]

Graham has been sometimes termed the "Picasso of Dance," in that her importance and influence to modern dance can be considered equivalent to what Pablo Picasso was to modern visual arts.^[1][2] Her impact has been also compared with the influence Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.^[3]

To celebrate her 117th birthday on May 11, 2011, Google celebrated by turning their logo for one day into a logo dedicating the life and legacy of Graham.^[9]

Martha Graham has been said to be the one that brought dance into the twentieth century. Due to the work of her assistants, Ron Protas and Linda Hodes, much of Graham’s work and technique have been preserved. They taped interviews of Graham describing her entire technique, and videos of her performances.^[10] As Glen Tetley told Agnes de Mille, “The wonderful thing about Martha in her good days was her generosity. So many people stole Martha’s unique personal vocabulary, consciously or unconsciously, and performed it in concerts. I have never once heard Martha say, ‘So-and-so has used my choreography.'"^[11] An entire movement was created by her that revolutionized the dance world and created what is known today as modern dance. Now, dancers all over the world study and perform modern dance. Choreographers and professional dancers look to her for inspiration.^[12]

Martha Graham Dance Company[link]

The Martha Graham Dance Company is the oldest dance company in America,^[13] founded in 1926. It has helped develop many famous dancers and choreographers of the 20th and 21st centuries including Erick Hawkins, Anna Sokolow, Merce Cunningham and Paul Taylor. It continues to perform, including at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in June 2008, a program consisting of: Ruth St. Denis' The Incense; Graham's reconstruction of Ted Shawn's Serenata Morisca; Graham's Lamentation; Yuriko's reconstruction of Graham's Panorama, performed by dancers from Skidmore College; excerpts from Yuriko's and Graham's reconstruction of the latter's Chronicle from the Julien Bryan film; Graham's Errand into the Maze and Maple Leaf Rag.^{[citation needed]} The company also performed in 2007 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, with a program consisting of: Appalachian Spring, Embattled Garden, Errand into the Maze, and American Original.^[14][15]

Quotations[link]

According to Agnes de Mille:

The greatest thing she ever said to me was in 1943 after the opening of Oklahoma!, when I suddenly had unexpected, flamboyant success for a work I thought was only fairly good, after years of neglect for work I thought was fine. I was bewildered and worried that my entire scale of values was untrustworthy. I talked to Martha. I remember the conversation well. It was in a Schrafft's restaurant over a soda. I confessed that I had a burning desire to be excellent, but no faith that I could be. Martha said to me, very quietly: "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. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."^[16]

“Virile gestures are evocative of the only true beauty. Ugliness may be actually beautiful if it cries out with the voice of power” - Martha Graham 1928. ^[17]

Accolades[link]

Graham was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976 by President Gerald Ford (the First Lady Betty Ford had danced with Graham in her youth). Ford declared her "a national treasure".^{[citation needed]}

Graham was inducted into the National Museum of Dance C.V. Whitney Hall of Fame in 1987.^{[citation needed]}

In 1998 Graham was named "Dancer of the Century" by Time Magazine,^[18] and one of the female "Icons of the Century" by People Magazine.^{[citation needed]} The New York Times called her a "brilliant, young dancer".^{[citation needed]}

Choreography[link]

This excerpt from John Martin’s reviews in the New York Times provides insight on Graham’s choreographic style. “Frequently the vividness and intensity of her purpose are so potent that on the rise of the curtain they strike like a blow, and in that moment one must decide whether he is for or against her. She boils down her moods and movements until they are devoid of all extraneous substances and are concentrated to the highest degree.”^[19]

Early dancers[link]

"Graham's original girls were superb – Bessie Schonberg, Evelyn Sabin, Martha Hill, Gertrude Shurr, Anna Sokolow, Nelle Fisher, Dorothy Bird, Bonnie Bird, Sophie Maslow, May O'Donnell, Jane Dudley, Anita Alvarez, Pearl Lang – as were the second group – Yuriko, Ethel Butler, Ethel Winter, Jean Erdman, Patricia Birch, Nina Fonaroff, Matt Turney, Mary Hinkson. And the group of men – Erick Hawkins, and after him Merce Cunningham, David Campbell, John Butler, Robert Cohan, Stuart Hodes, Glen Tetley, Bertram Ross, Paul Taylor, Mark Ryder, William Carter."^[21]

See also[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Bondi, Victor (1995) American Decades 1940–1949
• de Mille, Agnes (1991). Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham. NYC: Random House. ISBN 0-394-55643-7. 

Further reading[link]

• Newman, Gerald (1998). Martha Graham: Founder of Modern Dance. Danbury, Connecticut: Franklin Watts. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Martha Graham

• Martha Graham at Find a Grave
• An Athlete of God: The Personal Essay of Martha Graham
• PBS:American Masters biography
• Kennedy Center biography
• Martha Graham at the Internet Movie Database
• MarthaGraham.org – Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
• University of Pittsburgh online text
• MySpace.com/marthagrahamdancecompany – "MySpace site run by dancers of the Martha Graham Dance Company"
• BlackHistoryDaily.com – Martha Graham
• NY Times review by John Martin, June 7, 1959 of Episodes
• Read about the reconstruction of Clytemnestra at The Clytemnestra Project Site
• Batsheva Dance Company: From Graham to Gaga – Batsheva’s transition from a strongly American-influenced company to the more distinctive troupe it is today.
• (German) Martha Graham Dance Company
• Martha Graham's first recital, dancing barefoot on March 9, 1917, at the Peppers Estate ballroom in Santa Barbara.
• Archival footage of Martha Graham Dance Company performing Night Journey in 1994 at Jacob's Pillow