Adam Britton
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Dance Research 3
Adam Britton: Dance Excellence Awards Submission
Dance Research 3 Essay: Art as an imitation of life? Parallels between the
personal and the professional life of Martha Graham
Introductory Statement
Written for the Dance Research 3 unit, this essay discusses the work of Martha
Graham, and its relation to her personal life at the time of the work’s conception. It
explores four specific time periods, each of which was significant to Graham, and
searches for parallels between the personal and the professional sides of her life.
The essay was conceived as a result of a previous study into the works of
Martha Graham, and was designed to be an attempt to approach her work from a
completely different perspective, one that appeared to be relatively under-explored in
critical research. Although there are many publications that discuss Graham, few
make the connection between her personal and professional life throughout,
therefore this essay was written to fill in some of the gaps.
The key question explored in this essay is whether Graham’s professional
work was inspired by her personal life, and if so, what ideas found within the work
illustrate this? In order to answer this question, a selection of her works have been
explored and analysed. The tone and mood have been discussed, as have the
narrative and story. Her movement vocabulary and aesthetic decisions have also
been discussed, and each element has been compared to her personal life in order
to ascertain whether there was a direct connection.
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The other half of the question involves finding out about the people who
were influential in Graham’s life, and exploring how they inspired her work. Her
marriage, friendships and losses are also discussed, and their influence on her work
is explored and analysed. The main purpose of this work was to show that there was
a direct correlation between the personal and the professional work of Martha
Graham, and this essay demonstrates that there definitely was.
Essay
‘I have spent all my life with dance, being a dancer. It’s permitting life to use
you in a very intense way. Sometimes it’s not pleasant, sometimes it’s fearful. But
nonetheless, it’s inevitable.’ - Martha Graham. (Tatge: 1994)
Martha Graham is well known for putting her life experiences into her work.
Throughout her career, her works often contained stories and narratives that related
directly to her personal life at the time of their conception. In doing this, Graham
created a narrative to her own life, through her work. The key question is whether the
works accurately reflected her personal life, or whether she simply plucked an
emotional concept out of the air in order to create some of her pieces. In order to
answer this, exploration into Graham’s personal life is extremely important.
Furthermore, comparisons between her personal life and her professional life will
answer any questions with regards to whether the work of Martha Graham was art
as an imitation of life. In order to plot the trajectory of her career in relation to her
personal life, the selection of specific time periods is helpful.
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The first time period is the beginning of Graham’s career, covering the years
between 1926 and 1929. This period is important as Graham’s initial works were
very different from her latter works, and exploring the early works in relation to others
will show whether life experience and specific personal issues really did change her
approach to choreography and performance.
The second time period explored is the 1940s. Graham’s life changed
dramatically during this period, and she fell in love. Her professional life was growing
stronger and stronger, as was her personal life. This period is extremely interesting
as it gives one the opportunity to explore whether prosperity in her personal life led
to stronger and more innovative work or whether the success in her professional life
helped her to achieve happiness in her personal life.
The third period is the 1960s. This was where Graham had to relinquish her
career as a dancer. This time period is important in that it gives a strong
understanding of how Graham functioned as a dancer being trapped inside a failing
body, and how this affected her work at the time.
The final period explored is from the 1970s and onwards. This time period is
pivotal in the exploration of parallelisms between Graham’s personal and
professional life. After everything she had endured, understanding Graham’s mindset
at this time is very important in terms of understanding her approach to dance, and in
terms of understanding the sacrifices she made for dance.
Graham spent the very beginnings of her career in training with Denishawn, a
dance school run by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. In 1916, having admired a
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poster of St. Denis dressed in Hindu style clothing, Graham decided that she wanted
to study with her. However, St. Denis was initially unimpressed by Graham, saying
that she wasn’t sure what to do with her. She encouraged Shawn to take her in his
classes. These classes were instrumental in establishing Graham’s approach to
dance. She idolised St. Denis, who danced barefoot, and worked expressively using
world dance as stimulus. Graham’s very early works followed this formula, and she
too used styles such as Indian dance as stimulus for her very early solos. Examples
of these include Desir (1926) and Tanagra (1926).
After eight years Graham felt restless in her career and her movement, and
she began to create a new vocabulary of movement, based upon the idea of
contraction and release. She had utilised her Denishawn teachings extensively, but
did not want to carry on working with them, nor did she want to work with traditional
ballet. Graham felt that she wanted to create ‘something new, something startling’
(Freedman, 1998: 41). She wanted to be provocative, expressive and rebellious; to
make sure that she was remembered. This element of rebellion set her apart from
other practitioners, and her early works reflected this. She seemed to be intent upon
releasing herself from the bounds of traditional ballet, and did this with gestural
movement, stark costumes and lighting, and emotional representation through
movement. Graham was frustrated with representation in dance, feeling that the
body should not be used for the purpose of imitation.
I wanted something more from dance. It used to be that when dance was
staged, a flurry of the hand meant nothing more than the representation of
falling rain. The arm, moved in a certain way, suggested a wildflower or the
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growth of corn. Why, though, should an arm try to be corn, or a hand, rain?
The hand is too wonderful a thing to be an imitation of something else.
(Graham, 1991: 108)
Graham took this perspective forward into her works, and began to create
movement for her new company, initially consisting of herself and three other
dancers, Evelyn Sabin, Thelma Biracree and Betty Macdonald. The beginnings of
her career were a very difficult time for Graham. She worked extremely hard, trying
to establish herself, earning next to nothing. ‘Literally everything she had, her money
and her energy, was being poured into her work’ (McDonagh, 1973: 56).
Graham’s new perspective on dance resulted in many works, both group
works and solo pieces. She worked endlessly, developing her vocabulary of
movement as she choreographed. Graham’s attempt at a new approach to dance
did not go unnoticed. In 1927, Graham debuted Revolt (1927). The piece revolved
around social commentary, and was a representation of an individual speaking out
against communism and unfair rules. Agnes De Mille talks a great deal about how
Graham ‘stood for the outraged individual. She was herself a hurt girl, lonely and
probably frightened.’ (De Mille, 1991: 87). This statement reveals a lot about
Graham’s mind-set during this period of time. What better way to deal with loneliness
and fear, than to channel it into works based upon aggression and oppression?
When approaching Graham’s early works from this perspective, they almost appear
to be tantrums of sorts. The gestural movement and austerity found in the works
makes them seem angry and petulant at times. One is reminded of the moment
when a child stamps its feet and throws its hands in the air when it cannot get what it
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wants. Indeed, so did Graham. She expressed her frustration primarily through the
movement in these early works. Revolt was described as ‘a powerful manifesto, a
call to arms, in which the dancer, body braced, elbows jutting, seemed to be fighting
some sinister but invisible force’ (Freedman, 1998: 44). Her work continued along
these lines of frustration and social commentary throughout the latter part of the
1920s, and culminated in Heretic (1929), which is considered by many critics to be
Graham’s first major work. The dance was not a universal success, dividing critics’
opinions massively. However, the critics who appreciated it were amazed by its
originality and vitality. Heretic had been designed to be provocative and Graham was
aware that it would not be received positively by everyone who saw it. Indeed, she
spoke about the dance later in her life, stating that ‘I wanted people to like me, but I
had to dance what I was compelled to do and if the public hated me, well… I’d rather
have them hate me than be indifferent to me’ (Graham in Freedman, 1998: 53).
Looking at Heretic gives an immediate insight into Graham’s feelings at the
time. In establishing herself as an artist, Graham had also segregated herself from
her contemporaries. She was aware of this, and felt ostracised by them. When one
considers this while looking at Heretic, the whole piece begins to take on a different
perspective than might have been intended. Graham dances alone throughout, being
shunned by the other members of the group. She wants acceptance, yet never
achieves it. This was similar to her personal life at the time.
Another area worth considering when exploring Heretic is its similarity to what
was in vogue in European dance at the time. Various companies were producing
work that replicated machine-like movement, and Graham followed suit. ‘In Heretic,
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Martha was dealing with machine-like tradition – juiceless, mindless bureaucracy
and formula’ (De Mille, 1991: 89). However, Heretic appears to take a different path
from this traditionalism and mindlessness. The group of women in black are
machine-like in their movement; they are stiff and severe, moving as a unit. Graham
wears white, the lone rebel, fighting against this machinery. This is indicative of
Graham’s perspective on dance at the time. She uses a fashionable theme, yet
inserts herself into the mix, by presenting herself as separate from the others, as she
was at the time. In doing this, Graham contextualises the work in a historical frame.
By including a current trend, and standing up against it, Graham had already begun
to stamp her mark upon the world of modern dance, by rebelling against the
uniformity and obedience to formula that was found in it.
Although Graham’s work may not seem particularly controversial now, it was
at the time of its creation. Pieces such as Heretic were seen as ugly and aggressive,
and therefore people questioned Graham’s decisions during the conception of her
work.
Graham’s approach to work in the twenties is interesting, in that as a new
artist to the industry, one may have expected a level of tentativeness from her. But
Graham was not one to follow the rulebooks, and between the years of 1926 and
1930, she created seventy nine works for herself and her company. This becomes
more impressive when one considers that Graham was not using an established
vocabulary of movement, but inventing and creating her own technique and material
as the works were being developed. Graham clearly wanted to ensure that she
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would not be overshadowed by her beginnings at Denishawn, and that her work
would be recognised, even if it was not universally popular.
Agnes De Mille, who was a close friend of Graham’s, recounts Graham’s
feelings about the public opinions of her early works. ‘She wanted to create beautiful
and meaningful works, and nobody gave a damn, or not enough people did, to allow
her to pay her rent’ (De Mille, 1991: 87). This led to Graham becoming more and
more frustrated and vulnerable as time went on, and also affected her work at the
time. She became more aggressive choreographically, and her material became
harder, more fierce and expressive.
By the end of the twenties, Graham was still not particularly well known. Her
work was becoming noticed more, but she had yet to really reach the top tier of
practitioners at the time. The next twenty years were to be an extremely important
time in her career.
The forties were a very productive time for Graham. It was during this decade
that she began to use the Greek myths as inspiration for dance works. One would be
forgiven for thinking that Graham may have just used the original story for a starting
point; however this was not the case. She used the story, and then abstracted it to fit
her ideas better, implanting issues from her own life into each work. This time period
was to become an extremely productive, yet tumultuous one for Graham.
By the forties, Graham’s company had expanded greatly. She had a large
group of supporting dancers, all female except one, Erick Hawkins. Hawkins had
made his debut with Graham’s company in 1938’s American Document. He was not
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popular with the majority of the company, particularly Graham’s musical collaborator,
Louis Horst. Horst felt that the company should remain free of male dancers, and
Graham’s decision to insert Hawkins into the group created much tension between
the two of them.
For once, Louis was helpless. He was still the Jovian voice, but he had been
relegated to a more distant position. Erick was in the room working and
talking, and Louis was not in the room. Martha had other pianists. She was
changing. And Erick had what the girls could not compete with - he had his
manhood.
(DeMille, 1991: 231)
The relationship between Graham and Horst became more and more strained
as time went on, and it became particularly difficult when Graham entered into a
relationship with her male soloist, Erick Hawkins. This relationship was to become
pivotal in the conception of Graham’s following works, and indeed pivotal in the
context of her personal life. Graham had become well known for her temper, and so
far no-one had been able to calm her down when she entered into one of her
numerous bad moods. This trend was broken by Hawkins. He was able to calm her
down, and alleviate the effects of her notorious temper. Hawkins’s calming effect
upon Graham was noted by Agnes De Mille after hearing about it from the manager
of the troupe, Walter Prude. In 1941, the company was to visit Cuba. Graham had
purchased a new hat for the occasion. She had been irritated by something and
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removed herself from the company. She had pointed her hat upwards as a sign of
her annoyance. Hawkins went over to speak to her.
Prude said he could see the hat gradually change its angle and come down to
an agreeable and cozy position, and when she finally spoke again to her
group she was dulcet. Erick had real power over her.
(De Mille, 1991: 248)
The power that Hawkins had over her greatly affected Graham’s subsequent
work. She began to play more submissive feminine roles, while Hawkins took the
male lead, and portrayed the dominant character more frequently. This shift became
particularly noticeable in 1944.
In 1944, Graham debuted Appalachian Spring (1944). In this work, she and
Hawkins portrayed a married couple. This work is extremely interesting when one
compares it to Graham’s personal life at the time. Graham portrays love and
devotion through movement extremely convincingly; a great deal of the material is
choreographed in such a way that she is constantly directing her attention towards
the husband, be it through eye contact, or a bow, signalling her respect for him. In
turn, Hawkins approach to Graham is equally symbolic. The piece explores a frontier
marriage, in which the male would have been the dominant figure in the relationship.
Hawkins takes the lead, by wrapping his arms around Graham; he appears to claim
her as his own. Despite Graham’s fiery personality and strong sense of character,
she portrayed the submissive role convincingly. However, this is again indicative of
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the relationship between Hawkins and Graham. The fact that some of Graham’s
dancers actually quit the company when she started choreographing for Hawkins
suggests that they felt compromised by the burgeoning relationship between the two
of them. There was rampant jealousy as the female dancers felt side-lined by the
relationship, and they felt that it was unfair for Hawkins to have been made a
principal dancer when they had been with the company for longer. They also felt that
Graham was paying more attention to Hawkins than she was to them.
Many of the dancers resented Erick’s favoured treatment. Behind his back
they called him ‘the torso.’ When Martha began to ask Erick’s opinions and
invite his criticisms, she was faced with an open rebellion. Four of her best
women dancers left the company.
(Freedman, 1998: 85)
Nevertheless, Graham continued to focus her attention on Hawkins. She felt
that he was a sign of better things to come, and felt a renewed sense of optimism for
the future, which was reflected in the work.
The symbolism of Appalachian Spring did not go unnoticed by critics and
writers at the time. Here, Don McDonagh notes a parallel between Graham’s work
and personal life.
Then, in Appalachian Spring, she emerged into a world of light in which there
were no nagging shadows of the past but only the joyous present as she and
her mate assumed control of their lives and proceeded together. This was an
affirmation that had not been possible previously either in her work or her life.
(McDonagh, 1973: 180)
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Clearly, by examining this particular work in relation to what was going on in
Graham’s personal life, one can see that her personal life did indeed influence her
work. At this point, things were looking good for Graham. She felt very deeply for
Hawkins, and felt that she was on the verge of happy and blissful times. In terms of
her career, she was. The piece was well received, and has become one of Graham’s
most popular and enduring works. Yet more happiness came Graham’s way four
years later, when in 1948, Hawkins convinced her to marry him. Her friends and
dancers were extremely concerned about this, as they had already noted that the
relationship was not going as it should have been, and they felt that Hawkins was
with Graham for her connections, and because he wanted authority. In the end,
Graham ignored the doubts of her friends, and married him.
1948 was an important year for another reason. Graham’s musical
collaborator Louis Horst had never liked Erick Hawkins, and as time had gone on the
relationship had become more and more difficult. It all came to a head in 1948 when
Hawkins and Horst had an argument on stage in front of the company. While
quarrelling with Horst, Hawkins made ‘cruel and humiliating remarks’ (De Mille, 1991:
283). Graham sided with Hawkins against Horst. This act ended their friendship, and
many years passed before the two spoke again. Horst was said to be absolutely
distraught upon finding out that Hawkins had married Graham. However, Graham
was very happy and content in her life at this time, despite losing her closest friend
and confidante.
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Unfortunately, the happiness would be short lived. There were problems
approaching for Graham, and her personal life was about to suffer its most
devastating blow yet, one that was to shape her career for many years to come. Her
relationship with Erick Hawkins was about to come to an unpleasant and upsetting
end.
Graham and Hawkins’ relationship was only deteriorating further as her career
continued. Graham began to become frustrated with her work, and Hawkins bore the
brunt of much of her anger. A friend of Graham’s, Gertrude Macy, arrived at her
studio in 1950 and discovered Graham and Hawkins in the midst of one of their
many arguments.
Martha was hitting, kicking, biting, and screaming, mouthing invectives of the
vilest and most ferocious nature. Erick had her by the arms, pinning her
against the wall, trying to hold her quiet and keep her from clawing him.
(De Mille, 1991: 293)
This fight between the couple was not the only one that happened in 1950.
Hawkins and Graham had decided to go on a tour of Paris and London. However,
not far into the tour, Graham injured her knee, and was unable to dance. Hawkins
suggested that they cancel the tour, which sent Graham into a rage. When the
couple arrived into London, Hawkins left Graham, and returned to America alone.
Graham remarked ‘I was no longer useful to him’ (Tatge, 1994). By 1951, the
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marriage was over. Graham was distraught, and subsequent performances and
revivals of Appalachian Spring became more and more upsetting for her.
At one point, Pearl Lang was due to dance the part of the Bride in one of
these revivals. She claimed that Graham watched her run the piece once and said
that it was fine. She stated that Graham could barely even look at her, and spoke
about what Graham said to her before the performance. Just as Lang was about to
go on stage, Graham spoke to her, saying ‘You must know that this is the worst day
of my life’ (Lang in Tatge: 1994). Clearly Graham struggled to overcome the
separation between herself and Hawkins, and she took these issues forward with
her. Indeed, she focused less on Greek myths, whose use as stimuli had been
suggested to her by Hawkins.
To move past all that had happened Graham did what she always did; she
threw herself into her work, and continued to create more successful works.
However, it was about to become clear that the years of dancing had caused
irreparable damage to Graham’s body.
During the Sixties, Graham was still dancing although her body had begun to
fail her. She was unable to perform material that she had previously been capable of,
and was growing increasingly frustrated and upset. Yet, she refused to bow out and
continued to dance in her own works. Graham’s decision to appear in the majority of
her works, no matter her age, is an interesting one. The fact that she chose to
appear opposite much younger performers may be indicative of her refusal to retire
from the stage. She was unhappy with her appearance and the fact that her body
was aging, yet she still refused to retire. Critics noted a decline in her performances,
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stating that she began to lower the amount of physicality and technique within her
pieces, and that she appeared to have lost her former ability. Despite all of this,
Graham still continued to dance. Her stubbornness became more and more severe
throughout this time period. She had already demonstrated this stubbornness in
1959, when she had deviated from her usual method of working and embarked on a
joint project with George Balanchine of the New York City Ballet. This joint project
resulted in Episodes (1959).
The project was not an easy or successful one. Graham made some selfish
and devious choices. The initial idea for the project was that the New York City Ballet
would be used as much as possible during both halves of the project. Graham acted
cleverly and rather than directly refusing to go along with this, she choreographed
her section of the work in such a way that no ballet dancer would be able to dance it
without a long period of rehearsal. She used techniques that only her established
dancers would be able to replicate. This was indicative of Graham’s approach to her
work throughout her career. She wanted to stand alone, the leader and chief, and
whenever this position was compromised she was unable to cope. Quite why she
agreed to the project in the first place is unclear, as she clearly did not want to
compromise. In the end, dancers from Graham’s company had to dance the
material.
It was a costly victory for Graham, since she now had to find the money to pay
for her own dancers. But she was determined to present her Company and
her technique on an equal footing with the New York City Ballet.
(McDonagh, 1973: 257)
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Graham’s approach to this project was whole-heartedly calculated. Her
behaviour was clearly devious, and she appeared to deliberately make things more
difficult for everyone involved. However, the fact that her career was so uneven at
the time may explain some of her decisions. She was getting tired and frustrated,
and was aware that she was losing control. She was also becoming increasingly
aware that her body was getting tired, and she began to decrease her roles in her
works.
Acrobats of God (1960) is a key example of this. Graham portrays an aging
choreographer, primping and preening her dancers. The piece appears to be
mocking the role of the choreographer. Graham spends the majority of the time
turning away from the dancers, or running away from them, appearing to dismiss
their questions as trivialities for which she has no time. She has minimal movement,
and what movement she does perform looks strained and awkward. However at the
time of this piece, her arthritis was advancing further, and she was becoming less
and less able to dance as she had previously. In this particular work, it is Graham’s
portrayal of the choreographer that is the most illuminating factor. Not only does she
constantly correct the dancers, as she herself would, but she appears to view the
role of the choreographer as a joke. Perhaps this is indicative of her opinion of
herself. Graham wanted to be remembered as a dancer rather than a
choreographer, and stated this when asked by Antony Tudor. He merely replied ‘I
pity you’ (Tatge, 1994). This was said as Graham’s dancing life was clearly coming
to an end. Usually, a choreographer will have a longer career than a dancer, and
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Graham’s latter performances were an indication that she needed to contemplate
stepping out of the spotlight and focusing more on choreography. Clearly other
practitioners at the time found it difficult to see such a marked difference in Graham’s
presence on stage, which would explain Tudor’s feelings on the matter. Tudor’s
statement may also indicate that he felt that Graham was a better choreographer
than dancer, and in later years this became more and more evident.
In 1964, Graham received another severe blow. Her long-time musical
collaborator and friend Louis Horst died. Having reunited in 1955 after the problems
between them, they had once again become friends. Horst had been ill for a while,
suffering with heart complaints. After his death, Graham made a statement stating
that Horst’s faith in her had kept her from becoming lost. She referred to him as ‘the
great influence in American dance’ (Graham in De Mille, 1991: 362). 1964 was the
only year in the decade in which no new works were made by Graham. This may
indicate that she felt unable to work in the wake of Horst’s death.
In the latter part of the sixties, Graham began to be less and less involved in
her work. Already, her reliance upon alcohol was emerging more and more, and she
was finding the excessive costs and taxing schedules of her work hard to cope with.
Her body was also aging rapidly, and she made few appearances in her own works.
Works such as Cortege of Eagles (1967) followed this pattern. Graham’s role
became more and more diminished. She danced less and less, and seemed to just
move her arms and walk around the space. Her costumes became more and more
elaborate, for example, she constantly wore long gloves to hide the fact that arthritis
had caused her hands to resemble gnarled claws.
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Cortege of Eagles is yet another Graham work that could be seen to be
directly related to Graham’s personal life. In the work Graham portrays Hecuba, ‘the
bereft, monumental mother grieving for her dead’ (De Mille: 1991: 371). It was not
the first time that Graham had explored grief in her work, but this particular piece
was definitely timely in its conception. Graham had experienced much sadness and
grief by this point in her life. Not only had Louis Horst died in 1964, but she had lost
her long-time lighting artist Jean Rosenthal, who had passed away at the time of the
work’s debut. By this point Graham was finding it hard to continue. This personal
sadness combined with the problems found in her professional work drove Graham
to alcohol, and began a period of misery and hardship.
In the late sixties, Graham finally accepted that her dancing career was
coming to an end. She had started to replace herself with other dancers, most
notably Pearl Lang, who replaced her in later performances of Clytemnestra (1958).
This upset Graham further. She was not happy at being replaced, but she had to
accept it, which was something that did not come easily to her. Not only that, but
Lang received very positive reviews for her performance. This was extremely difficult
for Graham to accept, as she had created the role specifically for herself, and she
was now no longer capable of dancing it. Her body simply could not do what she
wanted it to, what it had done before. According to Agnes De Mille, the last time
Graham danced was in 1968, in A Time of Snow (1968). By this point, she could
barely move.
The sixties were not a successful time at all for Graham and her company.
She made ten roles for herself, and created eight works in which she did not appear.
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It was in these roles that Graham increasingly proved how much her body was ailing.
She received many comments from a variety of people in the dance community,
mostly negative, and many asking or telling her to retire. The most critical review
came from Clive Barnes, an English critic writing for The New York Times. He
criticised Graham’s performance levels and ‘advised her in an article in the Times,
even commanded her, to leave the stage’ (De Mille, 1991: 374). Needless to say,
Graham was livid. Shortly after the article was published, Graham was due to
receive an honour from the city of New York, the Handel Medallion. Graham
appeared in person to collect it, arriving late and intoxicated. In her acceptance
speech, Graham defied Barnes, stating that she would dance as long as she
pleased. However, this statement was soon proved false, as Graham gave her final
performance just one year later.
By the time that she was forced to retire from dancing, Graham’s body was
riddled with arthritis, and she could no longer move with her usual ease. This
situation became harder and harder for Graham to deal with, and she resorted to
alcohol as a coping mechanism. The manager of her company, Ronald Protas, saw
first-hand just how difficult Graham found her retirement from the stage. ‘When she
could no longer dance, she wanted to die. She felt her necessity was gone’ (Protas
in Tatge: 1994). During this time she completely stopped making any new work.
There was a four year period, between 1969 and 1973, where Graham was notably
absent from the dance industry. She kept minimal contact with the company, and
barely paid any attention to what was going on. Without her, the company began to
flounder. Without Graham at the helm, others had to lead classes, and there were
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numerous arguments about how work should be taught. The fact that Graham was
absent also affected interest in the company from other people. Struggling, members
of the company arranged some studio performances, which Graham also paid little
attention to. Quite simply, she appeared to be incapable of focusing on anything
other than her own physical and emotional pain. The other problem was that some
dancers took this opportunity to leave the company, attempting to forge successful
careers for themselves.
Later, Graham spoke openly of her struggles with alcohol, and discussed her
inability to accept the decline in her health, and her reluctance to create pieces for
other dancers. This was indicative of Graham throughout her entire career. She
wanted to be the star, and struggled to cope when the opportunity was taken away
from her.
Yet, eventually, Graham managed to overcome all of her struggles and return
to the studio. She spoke of her recovery, stating ‘I know that the anonymity of death
has no appeal for me, it is the now that I must face. What is there for me but to go
on? That is life for me’ (Tatge, 1994). She immediately began choreographing, and
revived her career with a series of new works and revivals. Her work completely
changed at this point. She appeared to have accepted her capabilities and stepped
away from the spotlight, focusing more on choreographing from the side-lines.
Discussing Graham’s later works, Russell Freeman notes that Graham’s approach to
her work definitely shifted after she returned to the studio.
The dances that Graham created after her retirement rarely focused on a
strong central character. She found it too painful to place in the body of
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another dancer the same movements and roles she once would have brought
to life herself.
(Freedman, 1998: 141)
This perspective is an illuminating one. Graham’s disinterest in works that did
not feature her had already been noted, but when one looks upon it from Freedman’s
angle, it is possible that Graham simply found it too painful to not perform in her own
work. Her earlier comments to Pearl Lang before a performance of Appalachian
Spring reinforce this viewpoint yet further. Graham found it extremely difficult to hand
over the starring role to someone else, and not being physically able to dance these
roles compounded the issue.
During this period Graham received many accolades. In 1976, she received
the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in America. She
became the first person from the world of dance to receive the honour, signifying just
how important and innovative her contribution to dance really was. She also received
the key to the city of Paris, and Japan’s Imperial Order of the Precious Butterfly. In
cultural terms, Graham was respected and admired by many. However, this praise
was not universal. For example, updated versions of her pieces were not popular
with critics, and people began to note a lack of content within the work. Upon
watching Phaedra in 1984, Tobi Tobias remarked:
Even her great Greek works of the forties, though not dated, are presently
unfashionable. When a lesser effort retains the familiar lofty tone and reduces the
action to the level of pornography, we are bound to wonder what the fuss is all about.
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(Tobias in De Mille, 1991: 405)
This clearly shows that Graham’s work did not have the impact that it had
once had. When Phaedra had debuted in 1962, Graham was criticised for the
sexuality in the work, some finding it overly erotic. Obviously, even years later it was
still not what some people wanted to see. The fact that Tobias speaks about her
work in the forties and refers to it as ‘great’ shows that there was obviously critical
acclaim surrounding the work, yet somehow some of the revivals were unsuccessful.
This may indicate the shift within the dance world through time.
The fact that Graham was no longer dancing her pieces also appeared to
cause issues with critics, who felt that the quality of the material was lower due to
Graham not dancing. Some felt that the meaning behind the works had been lost
during the revivals. ‘There can be no substitution for sincerity and lifetime dedication,
as there is no substitute for genius. The mark of original purpose was missing’ (De
Mille, 1991: 417). This perspective is understandable, as Graham’s interweaving of
the two strands of her life, the personal and the professional, meant that her dances
were meant for her. Only she understood the complexities of the emotions and
stories behind the works, and only she could convey these as they were intended.
Bertram Ross, one of Graham’s dancers, felt that Graham relinquishing her star role
made her less concerned about the level of performance in her works, stating that
‘Martha’s lack of interest in pieces she was not in started long ago’ (Ross in De Mille:
1991: 375). This lack of interest was difficult for the dancers to understand, and they
sometimes felt underprepared. They would need to rehearse work, yet Graham
would tell them all to leave the studio, as she needed to work.
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The revivals were not an easy area of Graham’s work. She began to change
more and more elements of the pieces, particularly things such as costume. Graham
was originally known for austere and simple costumes, found in early works such as
Heretic and Frontier (1935). However, when it came to revivals, as well as
rehearsals, Graham began to ask the dancers to wear more elaborate costumes,
such as gold tights. The dancers felt that this was because ‘the restrained decencies
of the old costumes became a memory of her youth’ (De Mille, 1991: 415). However,
Graham was criticised for these elaborate costumes, with some critics feeling that
she was becoming reliant upon them. Another interesting point to consider when
discussing Graham’s new approach to costume was that it mirrored her own
approach to clothing. In her early career Graham had dressed plainly, much like she
did in her works. However, by the end of her career, Graham, feeling unhappy about
her aging, had started to become more and more flamboyant when selecting clothes.
Even so late into her career, she was still implanting personal touches into her work.
Even elements like lighting had to be changed in the revivals, as Graham
frequently could not see the dancers on stage. She continued to ask for stronger and
brighter lights, at times, according to Agnes De Mille, ‘in some instances it was quite
garish’ (De Mille, 1991: 415). This was not true of the earlier works where Graham
would often keep things relatively simple. However, without the original technical
support, the revivals became more ostentatious and elaborate.
Economic instability had also taken its toll on the company, and some pieces
had to be extensively re-worked due to the fact that there were not as many dancers
in the company as were needed for specific works. Graham also had difficulty
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remembering some of the original choreography, which again led to changes. Some
works were changed several times, due to Graham’s refusal to let anyone view her
solo rehearsals, as well as a lack of notes detailing the choreography.
The overarching issue found in the eighties revivals was that Graham’s new
dancers viewed the works differently. In the very early days, the company had been
very poor. Dancing kept them going, but there was always a risk that the company
could go under. There was a sense of danger and unpredictability. By the later
years, the company no longer operated in such a way. Things were more relaxed. ‘It
had all become possible, even comfortable. The divine hazard was missing’ (De
Mille, 1991: 418). This caused some to feel that the works lacked the original artistic
meaning, and felt more like works of purely physical activity rather than the
emotional and innovative works that they had previously been. Graham’s intermittent
involvement in the company may also be relevant to the interpretation of the works.
Maple Leaf Rag (1990) was the last piece that Graham created before her
death. It stands as an extremely interesting example of her work. After all of the
difficulties in her life, particularly her later years, one would almost expect heavy
emotion-laden works. Graham did not go down this route in Maple Leaf Rag; rather
she created a jovial and comedic piece. Set to ragtime music by Scott Joplin, the
piece is bouncy and joyful, and has a strong sense of humour. It was described by
Russell Freedman as ‘a self-mocking commentary on human foibles and on her own
legend’ (Freedman, 1998: 146). There is also a strong sense of sentimentality in the
work, caused predominantly by the choice of music. Louis Horst, Graham’s musical
collaborator and close friend, used to play the music for Graham when she felt
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miserable. The piece actually begins with a recording of Graham asking Horst to play
it for her. This small detail shows how much of her past Graham had taken forward
with her. When Horst died, Graham was devastated, and she always spoke of him
as instrumental in her development as an artist.
This particular time period was also notable as it was when the critics’
opinions really shifted, and she began to be savaged for her approach, rather than
applauded. Yet Graham remained remarkably resilient, and she continued her
lifelong devotion to dance. Indeed, Maple Leaf Rag was almost an answer to these
critics and doubters. Each time they predicted the end of her career, Graham
returned stronger, and did what she did best, to surprise people.
All in all, the latter years of Graham’s career were difficult, tumultuous and
unfortunate. Graham appeared to feel the need to stay relevant, beginning to appear
at events that people had not expected, including discotheques. She worked with
many famous figures, such as Madonna and Liza Minnelli. By passing on her
knowledge and advice to such well known people, Graham perhaps hoped that her
approach would be carried forward.
Even at the time of her death in 1991, Graham was still creating new work.
Having spent seventy five years in dance, Graham had many more ideas left, and
she still wanted to continue to stamp her mark upon the dance industry. Graham’s
death was worldwide news, and the response to her death was indicative of just how
important a figure she was in the world of modern dance.
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Martha Graham clearly devoted her entire life to dance. From her beginnings
at Denishawn, she took her life experiences with her, and transformed them into
works of art. Throughout her career she experienced love, loss, friendship, grief,
heartbreak and loneliness. She channelled many of these emotions into her works,
which is clear to see when watching them. Graham sacrificed a great deal in her
pursuit of a career. She chose dance over many other things, even commenting at
one point on choosing dance over having a child. This shows her dedication to
dance, and also shows just how far she was willing to go to have a successful
career. She had little time for personal relationships in her life, with dancer and
choreographer Sophie Maslow discussing just how independent Graham really was.
She does not have in her life, nor did she ever have, what other women have
in the way of shared love, shared responsibility, shared growth, but maybe
she gets the same fulfilment in life in her artistic growth, her artistic status.
(Maslow in Freedman, 1998: 144)
Dance was a hugely important part of Graham’s life, and her dedication to it
was clearly demonstrated by her decision to expose her inner most thoughts on the
stage. Even if one knew very little about Graham’s personal life, watching her work
would give the viewer a good idea of who she was, and what she experienced. Quite
simply, she laid herself, and her life, bare for the world to see. As to whether her art
was an imitation of her life, from thorough examination and analysis of her works,
and of her personal life, it is clear that it was.
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Word Count – Including long quotes – 7040 words
Word Count – Excluding long quotes – 6493 words
Bibliography
De Mille, A. (1991) Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham. Random House
Inc. New York, USA
Freedman, R. (1998) Martha Graham: A Dancer’s Life. Clarion Books, New York,
USA
Graham, M. (1991) Blood Memory. Martha Graham Estate MacMillan London Ltd,
London, Great Britain
Horosko, M. (2002) Martha Graham: The Evolution of Her Dance Theory and
Training. University Press of Florida, USA
McDonagh, D. (1973) Martha Graham: A Biography. Praeger Publishers Inc. New
York, USA
Tatge, C. (1994) Summer Dance – Double Bills No.1 DVD. Tatge/Lasseur
Productions, WNET/New York, Cameras Continentales La Sept/Arte, BBC.
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