~Today I found some videos about Martha Graham one is a tribute video and the other is about her dancing. Enjoy!~
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~Today I found some videos about Martha Graham one is a tribute video and the other is about her dancing. Enjoy!~
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~Today I'm sharing another video of Martha Graham with you. ~ I quite enjoy this video and think it has a story that isn't common. I think the story is that she is giving birth or getting rid of something in her body. The piece of fabric resembles skin, I think. The movements are soft and liquid like. Enjoy! ~Today I thought I would share what I thought of the video I posted yesterday~
I really enjoyed watching this dance that Graham choreographed. I think I enjoyed it because it was relatively normal and not over the top. The movement I feel was ballet inspired and contemporary. The story was portrayed very well and it was understandable. The movement at time would be soft and flowy but then could turn in to sharp, angular movements. The movement could also be constricted at time. I hope you enjoyed the dance because I know I did. ~Today I found a dance that Martha Graham herself choreographed. At the begin it talks about her idea and vision for the dance. Enjoy!~ ~Today I'm going to tell you about how Martha Graham got inspiration for her dances~
Graham's inspiration for creation came from what she called "certain stirring". The inspiration could come from many thing such as classical mythology, biblical stories, historical figures, the American past, primitive rituals, contemporary social situations, Zen Buddhism, poems, writings, painting, or the puberty rites of Native Americans. After her starting inspiration she would create a bigger situation or character to incorporate the emotion or idea. After finding her idea she found music, or got new music made for her from long time collaborator Louis Horst, to keep inspiration she created movements to express her idea. Martha Graham also established the use of a mobile scenery, symbolic props, and speech with dancing and was also the first to mix her group racially. Martha used black and Asians in her regular company. She also replaced traditional ballet tunic or folk dress for either a straight, long, dark shirt or the common leotard. Using everything that she could she created a new way of dance. Martha Graham's first dances were angular and very abstract. Many people describe it as "cubist" in execution. Graham has said " Just like modern painters, we have stripped our medium of decorative unessential". The dances were performed on a bare stage with only lights and costumes. Later on she added scenery and costumes for effect. The music was usually contemporary and most likely composed just for the dance.
In 1925 Martha Graham became a dance instructor at the Eastman School of Music and Theatre in Rochester, N.Y. She began to experiment with different types of dance styles. Martha Graham said "I wanted to begin, not with characters or ideas but with movement... I wanted significant movement. I did not want it to be beautiful or fluid. I wanted it to be fraught with inner meaning, with excitement and surge". Graham didn't want to do tradition steps or technical classical ballet. She wanted the natural dancing body to be natural motion and to use the music. Martha experimented with what the body could do with its own structure; this was developing what they called "percussive movement".
~Today I found out about how Martha Graham became interested and started dance~
Martha Graham became interested in dance when she saw Ruth St. Denis perform in 1914. Against permission from parent Graham enrolled in Denishawn studio. Martha Graham was small, quiet, shy, thin, but sensitive and hard-working girl. She impressed the studio leader, Ted Shawn and toured with his troupe in a production of Xochitl; which is based on an Aztec Indian legend. In 1923 she left Ted Shawn's company and did 2 years of solo dancing with Greenwich Village Follies. Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer. Graham is one of the greatest recognizable artists in the 21st century as she created a movement language based upon the human body. She was born on the 11th of May 1894 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. In 1926 she started teaching a group of dancers who enjoyed her creativity, this became the Martha Graham Studio. The students who studied under Martha moved on to huge dance companies. Marths died age 97 on the 1st of April 1991 in New York, U.S.
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