STUDY GUIDE – WRITTEN EXAM #1 (Monday, March 3,2008)
INTERMEDIATE
MODERN DANCE
THE
205.00
Spring
2008
Instructor: Laurie Merriman
American Masters - Martha Graham PBS-
Martha Graham dies at 96 (NYTimes)-
Read these articles from the web thoroughly and be prepared to answer some questions related to these sites!
Videotapes and work reviewed or seen in class.
Handout: Graham - An Interpretation of Her Technique & Underlying Principles
I. Where does dance come from? (quote #1)
a. dance comes from the depths of man's inner nature
b. Muscle - Motor Memory
c. Kinesthetic response = establishing communication
II. The Graham Technique
a. Contraction & Release-exaggeration of biological process
b. Inhalation = release
c. Exhalation = contract
d. Movement should originate from the center of the
body
e. center = pelvic region
f. Contraction = movement toward the center of the body
g. Release = movement away from the center of the body
h. Opposition of Forces
i. The Body's Relation to Gravity
j. Concept of Space
k. Rhythm-basis of percussive movement-organically
grown
Handout: Martha Graham: An American Original
I. Dancing for her was not entertainment but a means of high communication
II. If asked whether to continue dancing, Graham said NO...why?
III. Why was Graham forced to stop dancing?
IV. What was her last work created before her death & what made it different from all the others?
Handout: Graham Moves: Offstage, Onstage
I. Graham created choreography, not exercises
II. What characteristics must Graham dancers possess?
III. Towards the end of Graham's life her creative process changed...how?
Text: Martha Graham-The Evolution of Her Dance Theory and Training
by Marian Horosko
Through page 88
I. What is the Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and what materials can be found there on Martha Graham?
II. Preface and Introduction
a. Evolution of her technique spanning 70 years
b. What teaching methods did Graham pioneer in her classes as early
as 1927?
c. What was Martha’s background growing up and how did her Father
influence
her as an artist?
d. What is Denishawn and how did these experiences influence
Graham?
e. How did this early training inform or not inform the development
of her own
work and technique?
f. What was the relationship between Martha, Humphrey and Weidman?
e. What was Martha’s involvement with the Greenwich Village
Follies?
f. Who was Louis Horst and how did he influence Graham?
III. The First Years
a. Evelyn Sabin Mannes
*Eastman School of Music (1925)
*non-formalized
technique
(walking, running, jumping, leaping,
contraction & release, the floorwork, and the falls)
*Accompanist=Louis
Horst
b. Ailes Gilmour
*The Neighborhood
Playhouse (1929)
*The Company
*Primitive Mysteries
(1931)-inspired by Mexico trip
*Isamu Noguchi-set
designer
c. Bessie Schonberg
*University of Oregon
(1926)
*Martha Hill (1927)
*Neighborhood Playhouse & NY (1929)
*Differences in the Technique of the early years
*How did the Japanese dancer, Michio Ito, influence
Martha?
*Heretic created in one night…introduction
to the Chorus…
III. The Thirties
a. Gertrude Shurr
*Oriental impression of Graham
*Floorwork=strengthening the back & legs
*Contraction/Release first taught in 1927-28
*Exhale=contraction*Inhale=release
*Typical class*Demonstration at Bennington College
in 1934
b. Dorothy Bird
*First Impressions of
Graham-Cornish School in Seattle (1930)
*Teaching style of Graham
c. Sophie Maslow
*Martha's use of imagery & meaning to guide the
quality of movement
*Center work in class (lifts, plies, turns, walks,
leaps)
*Differences between dancers of 2 generations
*Simplicity of a walk
d. Lily Mehlman
*Impression of Graham in
her role of 'the chosen one" in Massine's
Le Sacre du Printemps
e. May O'Donnell {1932-1938 &
1943-1953}
*Use of prances in
American Document (1938)
*Early 1930's - time of
the Depression and social unrest-
Martha's work reflected society
*Celebration (1934)
-breakthrough of more freedom
*Panorama (1935) -
beginning of Martha's new creative drive
& greater range of movement vocabulary
*Letter to the World (1940)-beginning
of Americana phase
*American Document
(1938)-first time she used a male dancer,
Erick Hawkins
*1940's-significant due to
dancers joining the company with
ballet technique
*Role as Pioneer Woman in
Appalachian Spring (1944)
(Martha's collaboration with her dancers in
developing roles)
*Cave of the Heart
(1946) -The Chorus was created for O'Donnell
f. Marie Marchowsky {1934-1940 &
1944}
*1930's a time of
searching and exploration-discarding the old-
upheaval in the arts (Martha's technique reflected
this)
*Contraction & release principle-with the pelvis as
the central
motivating force
*Primitive exercises influenced by American Indian
dances
*Greek Mythology phase reflected in a further
development of the
technique
*Louis Horst-"Eagle Eye"
*1933-introduction of Fourth Position ("z position")
g. Anna Sokolow
*Louis Horst-Choreographic Study
*Primitive Mysteries inspired Sokolow's
creativity
*concerns for choreographers 'today'
h. Betty Bloomer Ford
*Midwestern dance training
*Auxiliary affiliation with the Company
*First Lady
*Martha’s Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976-
a “national treasure”
IV. The Forties
a. Jane Dudley
*member of faculty at Bennington College
*appointed Artistic Director of
Batsheva Dance Co in Israel by Graham
*appointed vice-pres and sr.
teacher at London School of
Contemporary Dance in 1970
*"Martha was uncompromising"
b. Erick Hawkins
*a.
member of the fledgling Balanchine ballet companies of the 30's
(Ballet Caravan & Metropolitan Opera)
*Sent to study at
Bennington College with Graham, Humphrey,
Weidman, & Holm were teaching in 1936 to expand
movement
vocabulary for new work
*Joined the Graham
company in 1938-1st man
*1st job with the co
was to teach the "enemy"
*center=source
*Aesthetic
Vision=standards...a level, a goal that is beyond the
demands of the general culture
*Eye of Anguish,
1950, dropped from repertory...WHY?
*Hawkins 1st male in
co followed by Cunningham in the 40's
and Taylor in the 50's (among others) Increased
dramatic possibilities...
*Introduction of
ballet technique led to a greater emphasis on physical
speed, precise lifts, and virtuosity within the co
*Hawkins married to
Graham
c. Jean Erdman
*Student at Sarah
Lawrence College and was taught Graham
technique there by co members
*Invited to join the
co in 1938 and was immediately asked to learn
4 works in 10 days before a Boston performance
{Celebration, Heretic, American Provincials, &
American Lyric}
*Introduction of
ballet technique and how it added a new dimension to
the Graham technique
d. Mark Ryder
*Fall on 4-left side
only=intuition vs intellectual reasoning
*Change of body type
in the women co members in 1941
d. Helen McGehee
*Graham's
ability to execute and demand that her dancer's do the
same=rare source for learning
*Technique is the
means by which you rekindle (this) vitality…
what does this
refer to?
*You have so little
time to be born to the instant...
How does this
relate to taking class, etc.
*"devotion to the
performance, to the work itself, rather than to your
own importance..."
what does this refer to?
*#1 tip on
performing=NEVER MARK IN REHEARSAL
*#2 tip on
performing=energy/added vibration
*ritual before
performing
e. John Butler
*Playfully refered to Graham as an Irish Sorceress
*Why was Butler called "prince?"
*Working with her was a double act of faith...the
legacy is handed
down in this way...what is Butler referring to?
*Carmina Burana at the City Center in 1962
f. Stuart Hodes
*Memories of class
*Function of the “demonstrator” in class?