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Martha Graham (Biography)

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Popularity: 2 Vote:	'Age' is the acceptance of a term of years. But maturity is the glory of years.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	America does not concern itself now with Impressionism. We own no involved philosophy. The psyche of the land is to be found in its movement. It is to be felt as a dramatic force of energy and vitality. We move; we do not stand still. We have not yet arrived at the stock-taking stage.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	Dance is the hidden language of the soul.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	Every dance is a kind of fever chart, a graph of the heart.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	First we have to believe, and then we believe.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	I did not want to be a tree, a flower or a wave. In a dancer's body, we as audience must see ourselves, not the imitated behavior of everyday actions, not the phenomenon of nature, not exotic creatures from another planet, but something of the miracle that is a human being.
Popularity: 3 Vote:	Learn by practice.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	Misery is a communicable disease.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	Nothing is more revealing than movement.
Popularity: 3 Vote:	Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.
Popularity: 4 Vote:	The body is a sacred garment.
Popularity: 4 Vote:	Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	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 time, this expression is unique.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	Think of the magic of that foot, comparatively small, upon which your whole weight rests. It's a miracle, and the dance is a celebration of that miracle.
Popularity: 4 Vote:	To me, a building - if it's beautiful - is the love of one man, he's made it out of his love for space, materials, things like that.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. One becomes in some area an athlete of God.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety, and the wonder of life. This is the function of the American dance.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	You see, when weaving a blanket, an Indian woman leaves a flaw in the weaving of that blanket to let the soul out.

Biography

Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991), an American dancer and choreographer, is recognized as one of the foremost innovators in modern dance.

She was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania and moved to California as a child. After seeing Ruth St. Denis perform in the 1910s, she took an interest in dance. Not until age 22 (1916) did she pursue her interest professionally by enrolling in the Denishawn. In 1925, Graham became a dance instructor at the Eastman School of Music and Theater in Rochester, New York. She set out on her own, but with the constant support of Louis Horst, an accompanist whom she had got to know while training at Denishawn and who grew to be her lover and musical mentor. In 1926 Graham founded her own company, the Martha Graham Dance company. Her unique style of modern dance reflected the modern art of her time. Graham's performances made her famous for innovations in modern dance. The Martha Graham style is widely recognised for its trademarks contraction and release, the controlled falling to the floor, stag leaps and a developed imagery that goes with her movements.

At Bennington College, in 1932, Graham founded the first-ever bachelor of arts degree in dance. In 1951 she created the dance division of the Juilliard School.

Graham's dancing life gradually came to a rest starting in the 1950s. In 1948, the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance was established. One of her 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, groomed its first generation of dancers, and choreographed exclusive works for the Israeli group.

Her final dance performances came in the late 1960s, and from then on she focused on choreography. Some critics say that even though there is little physical record of her dances, they are more memorable than her choreographic work. Graham continued to work on the art up until her death in 1991.

She 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.)

In 1998, TIME magazine listed her as the "Dancer of the Century" and as one of the most important people of the 20th century.