Martha Graham And Humphrey

Influenced primarily by cultural roots and incredibly opportunity, Dunham had the luxury of studying in the West Indies as well as anthropological study of other cultural style dances. The West Indian experience changed forever the focus of Dunham’s life and caused a profound shift in her career. This initial fieldwork began a lifelong involvement with the people and dance of Haiti. And, importantly for the development of modern dance, her fieldwork began her investigations into a vocabulary of movement that would form the core of the Katherine Dunham Technique. Though many of Dunham’s primary influences lies within her multicultural experiences, Mark Turbyfill also seemed to play a large role in her future dance career, giving her private lessons despite his doubt in the opening of her student company (Kaiso! 187). Katherine Dunham has been list as an influence to “everyone from George Balanchine to Jerome Robbins, Alvin Ailey, Bob Fosse and Twyla Tharp. American dance, including ballet, modern dance, Hollywood and Broadway, would not be the same without her” (Aschenbrenner 226).

I. Introduction. There are many remarkable personalities in our history, which made revolutionary changes in women’s lives. Two of them were Margaret Sanger and Eleanor Roosevelt. They contributed immensely to change the women’s fates and lives and to position them equally with men. Margaret Sanger was born in 1879, in Corning, New York; she was sixth of eleven children of Michel Higgins, an Irish Catholic stonecutter, and religious Anne Purcell Higgins. Her mother went through eighteen pregnancies and died at the age of forty-eight. She studied nursing in White Plains and worked as nurse in one of the poorest neighborhood of New York. In 1902 Margaret Sanger married architect and radical William Sanger. She didn’t finish her studying. Margaret gave birth to three children. In 1912 Sanger’s family moved to Manhattan. All her life Margaret Sanger was a courageous, dedicated and persistent American birth control activist, advocate of eugenics, and the founder of the American Birth Control League. She was first woman opening the way to universal access to birth control.

What makes a great leader? Two great leaders from this century were Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. Despite their difference in gender and race and didn 't have political experiences. Martin Luther King Jr. was an African-American, Baptist minister, who was born on January 15, 1968. He lead the civil rights movement. Eleanor Roosevelt, who was born on October 11, 1884, was an influential a First Lady. She was a great social reformer and she was a beyond educated well and came from her wealthy family as well. Both had successful leadership qualities: empathy, conceptualization, and ability to build community.

Recognized as two of the greatest, most profound choreographers of the 20th century Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey forever changed the history and future of American Modern Dance. Both choreographers have such inspirational backgrounds that enhance the emotions throughout their pieces. In the peak of their careers, they fulfilled their accomplishments and goals. Being that they were both American choreographers, their work was different for the most part but was similar at some point. Martha Graham created a movement language based upon the expressive capacity of the human body.

At the end of the 19th century, ballet was the most prominent form of dance. However, to Isadora Duncan, "ballet was the old order that needed to be overthrown, an embodied symbol of all that was wrong with oversymbolized 19th century living" (Daly 26). Duncan believed that the over-technical, over-standardization of ballet was not what dance should be about. Her vision of dance was one of emotions, ideas, social betterment, and the complete involvement of the body, mind, and soul (26). With these ideas in mind, she began to create a new form of dance; what she referred to as the "new dance" (23), and what is now known as modern dance. In creating this new dance, she was inspired by composers such as

Ailey was inspired by Martha Graham when learning to dance. He used to visit the Martha Graham studios and there studied Ballet and Drama classes. Graham’s dance techniques were expressive and included contractions and angular, parallel movements. A dance in which Ailey uses this style could be the first section of ‘Cry’. Throughout, we see the expressive emotion shown through this dancer. We see the use of contractions, arched movements and curves. Soon after the dancer throws the fabric cloth to either side, near the beginning, she side stretches over to the opposite horizontal showing a curve in her torso. She also curves her back slowly up contracting from her stomach. Throughout ‘Cry’, we see many contractions mainly all linking to the stomach. Angular and parallel movements can be seen where the dancer balances on her left leg and lifts up her right leg giving off a right angled shape. (Arabesque Line). This movement is also common in many of Ailey’s other dances including ‘Flowers’ and can be seen in some dances from ‘Revelations’.

Martha Graham was one of the most influential figures in American modern dance, and her techniques and styles are still practiced today. She became widely known throughout all ages and decades. Her first debut was in the 1920's. As time went on, she became more experienced and wiser in the modern dance field. Martha Graham, whose style was considered controversial, became one of the finest choreographers and dancers in the dance world.

In the first section, Desmond focuses on “movement style and meaning” (pg. 31). She explains how movement is learned through our communities. In some locations, some dances may be seen as proper because that is what they learned in their community, but if performed in another community, those people may see their dance as “improper.” Desmond provides the example of how in the nineteenth century the waltz was seen as “too sexually dangerous” when introduced in North America and Europe. Their reasoning

She studied different types of dance and incorporated them into her own technique. “Called the matriarch of black dance her groundbreaking repertoire combine innovative interpretation of caribbean dances,traditional ballet, African rituals and African American rhythms to create the Dunham technique” (“Katherine Dunham Biography” 2). Dunham technique is continued to be taught at schools and companies all over the world. Her travels to other countries always inspired her choreography. “She is credited for bringing caribbean and African influences to a European-dominated world” (“Katherine Dunham Biography” 2). Dunham’s use of different world influences innovated dance and created more significant choreography. Dunham not only changed how she danced; she created an entirely new

Petipa’s production of Swan Lake is a beautiful example of the structure movements that dancers must perform; in the clip titled Odile entrance & Black Swan pas de deux, you see “The Black Swan” perfect posture and balance, dancing on en Pointe all the while managing to gracefully seduce the prince through her seductive movements and entrancing expressions. In contrast Modern dance focus is on the dancer expressing their inner most emotions and feelings through free flowing movements. The modern dancer uses their whole body more naturally and fluidly to convey what their current emotional state is, unlike classical ballet where the ballerina at all times keeps an upright posture, and performs with structured, angular lines. Martha Graham’s “Frontier” is a great example of the free movements of Modern dance; In this performance Martha Graham uses her whole body to move to the rhythmic sounds of the drums and music, you can clearly see that there is no confined structure in this performance, she is completely moving organically to how she is feeling and what she is trying to convey through her movements.

He is seen today as one of the most enduring forces in modern dance choreography, having pioneered for decades. One of his most well-known works Gloria has been performed, with adaptation, since 1981. He has also had the distinction of performing to the playing of world renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma on numerous occasions, with Ma remarking that “Mark always manages to put the perfect movement to even my extemporaneous flourishes.” His work on preparing for the funeral of Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and his international performances have made him recognizable around the globe. Having choreographed and or conducted (along with other recognizable choreographers) special performances for dignitaries such as 3 sitting US presidents, the Emperor of Japan, the Queen of England and a Premier of the Soviet Union has enlarged his admirers to superstar levels.

The movements were very specific and showed the story of the dance. The partners used many movements that contained many body

Watching the video “A Dancer’s World” made me want to become a professional dancer. Martha Graham’s dancers showed how delicate, defined, sharp, smooth, and astatic a choreography can be. It illustrated how much hard word and dedication it’s needed, but the results will always be beautiful. Also Martha Graham explained how dancing with a partner can be. She also talked about males as dancers, but in her video she demonstrates how men danced with females using physical contact. The techniques and how the piece turns out to be. Both genders jumped a lot through out each piece of performed and that’s something loved. During a piece, there can be both gender dancing separately doing their own thing. The techniques are used differently by males

Martha Graham is one of the most highly renowned and influential artist and chorographer in Modern dance of all time. Graham has influenced Modern dance, taking styles of her own and being able to express a variety of themes with human emotion. Graham’s work strongly reflected her; she is also well known for her other choreographies such as: Appalachian Spring, Lamentation, and Night Journey, and many more.

Changing the landscape of the dance community, Pina Bausch introduced a new form of modern dance. Her intricate movement with an air of theatrical background created dances that both inspired and challenged choreographers for years to come.