Martha Graham, 1894-1991: The Mother of Modern Dance
VOICE ONE:
I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we explore the life of dancer and choreographer Martha Graham. She created almost two hundred dance pieces. She is often called the Mother of Modern Dance. Her influence on the world of dance continues today.
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VOICE ONE:
In the beginning of the twentieth century, women like Isadora Duncan and Ruth Saint Denis wanted to create a new form of dance. Duncan and Saint Denis felt restricted by ballet. Modern dance was created as a revolt against ballet. Martha Graham was one of the most famous dancers and creators of dance, called choreographers. She brought modern dance to a new level of popularity in American culture. She created a new language of movement that expressed powerful emotions. She started traditions that are still used in modern dance today. They include expressive movements of the body to tell a dramatic story, special music, lighting, stage design and costumes.
玛莎·葛莱姆(Martha Graham)
美国女舞蹈家、编导、教师和理论家。美国现代舞的创始人之一。
葛莱姆在创作实践中逐渐探索和形成了一整套系统化的现代舞技巧和训练方法。这种技巧的特点是注重人的脊柱活动,动作以躯干的收缩和伸展为主,四肢向外伸张,特别是创造和发展了在地面上起伏的技巧。她认为,舞蹈既是一种叙事手段,也表现着人的精神和感情实质,要揭示“内在的人”。她大胆运用电影化的表现手法,巧妙地处理空间和时间,如用“闪回”的 手法 M.葛莱姆编导的《心之窗》使支离破碎的事件在空间组合起来。她的作品题材、体裁都很广泛,有独舞小品,也有大型舞剧。作品或是取材于古希腊罗马神话、宗教、民间传说,或是取材于美国现实生活,此外还有抽象地解释音乐的。她在舞台美术方面曾得到日本雕刻家野口勇的合作,大胆使用了立体的雕塑布景来代替传统的布景。作为现代舞的重要代表人物,她对现代舞的创作和表演,对音乐喜剧、歌剧甚至电影、电视,都产生过重大影响。
VOICE TWO:
Martha Graham was born in the small town of Allegheny, Pennsylvania in eighteen ninety-four. After Martha turned fourteen years old, her family moved to Santa Barbara, California. While traveling across the Midwest, Martha enjoyed the wide, open spaces of nature. She also enjoyed the beautiful flowers and plants in California. The free, expressive movements of modern dance were clearly influenced by the beauty of nature Graham observed.
VOICE ONE:
Earlier in her life, however, Martha did not know that she would become a dancer. Her father was a doctor and her family was very religious. They were members of the upper class and did not accept dance as an art form. Still, in nineteen ten, Martha’s father took her to see a dance performance by Ruth Saint Denis, one of the first modern dancers in America. Martha was sixteen and she decided then that she wanted to become a dancer.
VOICE TWO:
Ruth Saint Denis and Isadora Duncan were at the center of attention in modern dance. They established some of the traditions we see today. For example, Duncan was famous for starting the tradition of not wearing dance shoes while performing. Saint Denis was famous for creating dances influenced by other cultures. She studied dance from countries such as Mexico and Egypt, instead of the European countries where ballet had started. Martha Graham took an immediate interest in this new art form.
VOICE ONE:
Martha’s parents, however, did not approve of her sudden desire to dance. At this time, people saw American dance as a lower art form. Graham chose to follow her dream of dancing, even though she was considered too old to begin dancing. She was in her early twenties when she began studying dance in nineteen sixteen. She attended the school created by Ruth Saint Denis and her husband, Ted Shawn in Los Angeles, California.
At the Denishawn Dance School, Graham worked very hard to improve her ability to dance. She trained her body to become strong enough to meet the difficult demands of dance. She performed with the Denishawn dance company for several years before moving to New York City. There, Graham performed in shows but she wanted to make greater experiments with dance.
VOICE TWO:
Martha Graham started teaching dance at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Later she returned to New York City to teach at Carnegie Hall. She began to choreograph, or create the steps of dances. In order to express herself freely, she decided to establish her own dance company and school. In nineteen twenty-six she started the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance.
She enjoyed having her own company of students to perform her dances. Graham produced a dance called "Heretic" in nineteen twenty-nine. She wore all white and danced against a wall of dancers wearing all black. Graham began to work with music composer Louis Horst. She worked with him until he died in nineteen sixty-four. Graham once said that, without Horst, she would have felt lost.
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen thirty-six, Graham created "Chronicle," one of her most important dances. "Chronicle" was influenced by current events including the Great Depression and the Spanish Civil War. The dance expressed sadness and loneliness. At this time, showing strong emotions in dance was very rare. Graham also created dances based on ancient Greek tragic stories and famous female heroines.
At first, people did not react well to Graham’s style of dancing. It was very different from European ballet, which was more commonly accepted. Graham’s dances were powerful, with strong and sharp movements. Some of the movements involved contracting and releasing parts of the body, using the arms in dramatic movements and falling to the floor. These movements are still used in modern dance today.
VOICE TWO:
In nineteen thirty-eight, President Franklin Roosevelt’s wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, invited Martha Graham to perform at the White House. She created a dance called "American Document." Graham later danced at the White House for seven other presidents.
In nineteen forty-four, Martha Graham created "Appalachian Spring," one of her most famous dances. It tells the story of a wedding among early American settlers. Aaron Copland composed this music for "Appalachian Spring."
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VOICE ONE:
In nineteen fifty-one, Graham was among the people who established the dance program at the Juilliard School in New York City. It is still one of the best arts schools in the country. Many famous artists have begun their careers by studying there. Graham created her largest dance in nineteen fifty-eight. She named it "Clytemnestra," and used music from the Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh.
Graham worked with other famous and influential people in the world of dance. Many of her students became famous dancers and choreographers. She also taught movement to famous people. including singer Madonna, actress Bette Davis and film director Woody Allen.
VOICE TWO:
Some of her dances were filmed and made into a DVD called "Martha Graham: Dance on Film." This is a collection of three programs Graham made for American public television in the nineteen fifties and sixties. "A Dancer’s World" is an introduction to Graham and her work. She tells about her dances and her dance group shows some of their methods. The DVD also includes films of two of her dances, "Appalachian Spring" and "Night Journey."
VOICE ONE:
Graham continued to dance past the age of seventy. Once again, she was met with criticism from people who came to watch her shows. Younger people knew that Graham was an important influence but they did not understand the meaning behind her dances. Graham began to suffer emotionally. She began to drink too much alcohol.
She later wrote a book about herself, called "Blood Memory." In her book, she wrote that she performed for the last time in nineteen seventy, when she was seventy-six years old. Two years later Graham stopped drinking alcohol. She went back to her dance company to choreograph more dances. The final dance she completed was called "Maple Leaf Rag," which she finished in nineteen ninety. Scott Joplin composed the music.
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VOICE TWO:
Martha Graham received many awards during her lifetime, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in nineteen seventy-six. She was the first dancer to receive the country’s highest civilian honor. She died in nineteen ninety-one at the age of ninety-six. In nineteen ninety-eight, Time magazine listed her as the "Dancer of the Century" and as one of the most important people of the twentieth century. The Martha Graham Dance Company still performs her dances in New York and around the world.
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VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Elizabeth Stern. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Barbara Klein. You can learn about other interesting Americans at our Web site, en8848.com. Join us next week for People In America, in VOA Special English.
