Martha Graham

Martha Graham was an American choreographer, ballet dancer and ballet master, born in 1894 in Allegheny, who died in 1991. This page lists 12 works credited to Graham as choreographer, including Cave of the Heart, Errand into the Maze and Imagined Wing.

Biography

Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer responsible for creating the Graham technique.

Graham danced and taught for over seventy years. She was the first dancer to perform at the White House, travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and receive the highest civilian award of the US: the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction. In her lifetime she received honors including the Key to the City of Paris and Japan's Imperial Order of the Precious Crown.

From the Wikipedia article “Martha Graham”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Works choreographed by Martha Graham

Title	Type	Premiere
Acrobats of God	choreographic work	—
Appalachian Spring	choreographic work	1944
Cave of the Heart	ballet	1946
Clytemnestra	ballet	1958
Errand into the Maze	ballet	1947
Imagined Wing	ballet	1944
Judith	ballet	—
Lamentation	ballet	1930
Land Be Bright	ballet	1942
Maple Leaf Rag	ballet	—
Primitive Mysteries	ballet	—
Revolt	choreographic work	1927

Quotes

“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.”
"The American Dance", in Modern Dance, ed. Virginia Stewart (1945).

“Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.”
As quoted in The Runner's Book of Daily Inspiration : A Year of Motivation, Revelation, and Instruction (1999) by Kevin Nelson, p. 11.

“I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable.”
As quoted in "About Martha Graham" at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance.

“I believe that 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. In each it is the performance of a dedicated set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes the shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes in some areas an athlete of God.”

More Martha Graham quotes →