Martha Graham A Woman Of Innovation
Rebellion is a part of human nature. It is something that everyone goes through at some point in their life. Very few people can say that their rebellion caused a revolution.
There are some people who take the world that they live in and turn it on its ear. They do not settle for has always been, but seek out ways to change the world that they live in. These are the people that blaze a trail for those who will come behind them.
In the art world the greatest artists are the ones who have brought about a revolution with their innovative thinking. Artists like Picasso changed the way we see the world. Pollock changed the way that we think that art is supposed to look like. And Martha Graham brought the world of dance out of the realm of entertainment and into the world of art.
Martha Graham lived in New York City during the 1930's. As you can imagine devastating poverty and hopelessness surrounded her. It was her thought that the stage productions that were on Broadway were nothing more than a way for some in society to escape the reality of the stark conditions of their city. Instead of creating more of the same, Graham incorporated the turmoil and hopelessness into the dances that she created.
The theater on Broadway provided a means of escape, but only for those who had the money to indulge. Graham saw the stage as an escape from the real world that surrounded it. Her vision was to bring the reality of life to the stage and give movement and motion to the turmoil of the real New York City.
Her noted piece "Steps in the Streets", which was a part of a larger performance called Chronicle, she displays the pain and helplessness that many of the people in the city could relate to. Twelve women dressed in black dresses perform this piece of undulating movements on the stage. The dance through movement gives the audience a glimpse into the hopelessness and helplessness that so many real people's experience.
There were of course critics of Grahams work mostly because it was so misunderstood. Because her dance was so different than anything else that existed it took many years before it could be appreciated. Today, almost twenty years after Martha Graham died, we see dance as an art form that can be an expression that uses the body to communicate.
Martha Graham could be classified as a trailblazer because of her ability to do something that hadn't been attempted before her. She was able to take dance and turn it into a social and political statement of the conditions of her world as she saw it. Now, people understand that the dance can be a political statement or any other expression that we wish it to be.
Today, the work of Martha Graham is studied for its innovation at the time that it was created and for the concept of freedom of expression. Martha Graham should be thanked for her work that moved her chosen art forward into a new way of thinking and performing. Thanks to this innovative artist we now have a medium that can be used to express every human emotion.
Because of the work of Martha Graham we can see dance as an art instead of a pleasant diversion from the harsh realities of real life. Her stand was daring and brave for confronting the people of her generation with the reality of many people's existence. There was no fantasy or dream in her performances, but only the truth as she saw it.
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