<font size=" +10"> <b> <center> Martha Graham </center> </b> <title> <head> <body bgcolor="#f7bdde"> <p> <font size=" +4"> <font face="century"> <p> <p> <center> <img src="morgan_1.jpg"> </center> <br> <p> Martha Graham had no intention of dancing. Her dancing career started when she was twenty-two years old. But when she did, she revolutionized the world of dance. Most ballerinas were never on the floor and danced to tell a story. Graham, in comparison, used spastic, random movements to portray feelings, not stories. This became known as modern dance. </p> <p> Martha Graham was born in Pittsburgh on May 11, 1894. In 1908, after she moved to Santa Barbara California, she saw a performance of Ruth Saint-Denis. This is when she decided to be a dancer. Martha studied theater and dance at the University of Cumnoch in the years 1913 to 1929. After graduating in 1916, she joined the Denishawn School in Los Angeles. </p> <p> In 1926, she presented her first recital on April 18 in New York. A year later, Martha opened the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. Here, she often dealt with social problems. When she was offered to construct a piece for the Olympic games in 1936; she refused because "I would find it hard 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 the same year, though, she created Chronicle, which many believe to be a new era in dance. It was influenced by the Spanish Civil War, the Wall Street Crash, and the Great Depression. Both costumes and the set were made by hand and had a dark nature. Two years later, in 1938, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt invited her to dance at the White House. For this reason, she created American Document. Besides the Roosevelts, Graham will dance for seven other presidents. Martha also danced in a piece called Appalachian Spring in October of 1944. The piece was scored by Aaron Copland. A year after, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Spring told the story of American pioneers in the 1800s when they built a farmhouse in Pennsylvania. It was created when Martha Graham requested it. In the 1940s she toured with her company in the USA and in Cuba. A few years after Frontier, Graham found Erik Hawkins, a ballet dancer, and brought him into the company. After 10 years of dancing together, they married in 1948. Though the couple soon separated, Erik was a large influence in Martha Grahams life. Martha said, soon after their divorce. "After eight years of living together, Erik decided we should marry. I didn't want to, but I did. During that ninth year it all fell apart. It shows. Never try to hold on to anything." </p> <p> In 1955 and in 1956 she won the Dance Magazine Award for revolutionizing dance. Around 1970, she stopped dancing. She faced health problems and depression, though she didnt stop choreographing. Graham died in 1991 while she was working on a new ballet for the Olympic Games in Barcelona. It was named The Eye of the Goddess. </p> <p> In her early years, her father, who supported her with his interest in physical movement, heavily impacted Martha Graham. He was a doctor and was very interested in physical movement to cure. The belief in the bodys ability to express inner senses was pivitol in Grahams desire to dance. (American Masters.com) She was a strong person because she had the ability to stand up for what she believed in. She showed this when she refused to go to the Olympics in Germany. She showed that she inspired people when she was presented with the Dance Magazine Award in 1970. Martha Graham changed the world of dance by dancing the exact opposite of ballet and shocking everyone into loving what she loved to do. In addition to revolutionizing dance, she also changed the world of set design, costuming, and composing. </p> <br> <br> <center> <img src="main_marthagraham.jpg"> </center> <br> <br> <center> List of Works Cited <br> Graham, MarthaÓ The Columbia Encyclpedia. The Columbia University Press, 2000. 15935. Student. <http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do? Prodld=STOM> Martha GrahamÓ American Masters. On-line. Internet. 17 Dec 2007. Available.<http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/graham_m.html> Martha Graham: her biographyÓ dance pages. On-line. Internet. 17 Dec 2007. Available . <http://www.cmi.univ-mrs.fr/~esouche/ dance/Graham2.html> Martha GrahamÓ Microsoft Encarta On-line. Encyclopedia.2007. http://encarta.msn,com 1997-2007 Microstoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Martha GrahamÓ Wikipedia. On-line. Internet. 3 Jan 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Graham The Last Word.Ó New Moon 14.2 (Nov-Dec 2006): 49(1). Student Edition. Gale. Brooklyn Middle School. 12 Dec 2007 http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodld=STOM </center> <br> <br> <center> <font size+" 3"> Alexis Brierley </font> </center> </body> </html>