Showing results for "Martha Graham" in Arts & Entertainment

Martha Graham (May 11, 1894-April 1, 1991) was an influential American modern dancer and choreographer. In 1926 the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance was established. In the following decades, it would help develop many of her famous protégés. In 1938 Graham became the first dancer to perform at the White House. In 1976 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Gerald Ford.

Often called the Picasso, Stravinsky, or Frank Lloyd Wright of the dance world, Martha Graham revolutionized ballet stages across the globe. Using newly discovered archival sources, award-winning choreographer and dance historian Mark Franko reframes Graham's most famous creations, those from the World War II era, by restoring their rich historical and personal context.

In 1930, dancer and choreographer Martha Graham proclaimed the arrival of "dance as an art of and from America". Dancers such as Doris Humphrey, Ted Shawn, Katherine Dunham, and Helen Tamiris joined Graham in creating a new form of dance, and, like other modernists, they experimented with and argued over their aesthetic innovations, to which they assigned great meaning.Their innovations, however, went beyond aesthetics.

Official podcast of the Martha Graham Dance Company.