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Prescribed artist
Martha Graham
Consider the following framework when analysing Appalachian Spring by Martha Graham, and how the use of this framework may add breadth and depth to your response.
The choreographer
The audience
The world
References
The choreographer
Martha Graham (1894-1991) has often
been hailed as the genius of modern dance (Cohen, S.J, 1992: 135).
- What is it about her work that qualifies this statement?
- Make a list of factors which contribute to this perception.
The fact that Graham invented a new
language for dance is considered to be a primary contributing factor. Certainly
her quest for an adequate and significant movement vocabulary was the driving
force behind the creation of her technique. It was not for this feat that
Graham wished to be remembered, but rather for being a dancer. Martha Graham
choreographed and danced in her work Appalachian Spring when it premiered
at the Library of Congress in Washington DC on October 30, 1944.
- Consider Graham's influence on American dance history through this work.
- Is Graham remembered for the choreography, for her performance or for another reason in regard to this work? Why?
- Watch Appalachian Spring on video and identify sections of the work that clearly demonstrate the new dance language that Graham created.
Graham was sometimes identified as
"that arty, angular woman who moves in spasms and jerks" (ibid: 135) by her
contemporaries and the general public.
- Can you find evidence of this characteristic in Appalachian Spring?
- Why do you think people perceived her in this way?
- Identify the major differences between Graham's technique and other techniques of the period, including classical ballet and the movement vocabularies of Duncan and St. Denis.
Martha Graham once said of Appalachian
Spring that it was essentially a dance of place. You choose a piece
of land, part of the house goes up. You dedicate it. The questioning spirit
is there and the sense of establishing roots. (Martha Graham, Blood Memories)
- Are there other works by Graham that demonstrate a similar theme?
- How does this statement illustrate Graham's ideologies during this period of her life and career?
She also once said: the centre
of the stage is where I am.
- What do you suppose she meant by this statement?
- How can this statement be used as a metaphor for her contribution to dance?
- How can this statement exemplify the difficulty she had later in her career in allowing other dancers to dance her roles, particularly the part she danced in Appalachian Spring?
The audience
Appalachian Spring was well
received by the dance world and critics at the time of its premiere.
- What factors do you think made this dance appealing to Graham's contemporaries?
- Imagine that the work was being premiered today. Do you think it would receive the same response? Why or why not?
- Imagine that the work was being telecast live to an internet audience. Do you think that it would be successful in this medium? Give reasons for your response.
- Why do you think that Appalachian Spring is recommended as a seminal work for study in the HSC course?
The title for the work was inspired
by a poem The Dance by Hart Crane that Graham had read, rather than
from the title of the musical score for which Graham had given a detailed
script. The composer Aaron Copland called his score Ballet for Martha.
- What clues does the title give the viewer about the work?
- Brainstorm new titles for the work, and give justifications for your choices.
- Write a poem called Appalachian Spring that could have been stimulus material for the work.
- How would the work have been different if it had been titled Ballet for Martha?
- Write an entry that could have been published in the program for the original work.
The world
In August 1942, Graham wrote to Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, the commissioner of the work, that this collaboration was not only a first for me but for American dance as well. To my knowledge this is the first time that a commissioning of works for the American dance has ever happened. It makes me feel that American dance has turned a corner, it has come of age.
- Why are works of dance commissioned?
- How does Appalachian Spring embody and embellish American history?
- In what other ways has Appalachian Spring contributed to the history of American dance?
- What ideological views, values and beliefs of society surround the work?
In 1990, Life magazine selected
Martha Graham as one of the 100 Most Important Americans of the Twentieth
Century.
- For what reasons do you think that Graham was selected for this honour?
- What does this selection tell you about the way in which Graham is remembered in American society?
- How are race, place, belief and identity portrayed within Appalachian Spring?
- Is the impact that she had on American society different from that in other parts of the globe? How so?
- Write a critique of Appalachian Spring that could be included with the information on Graham in Time magazine's feature.
References
Cohen, S.J. (1992). Dance as
a Theatre Art: Source readings in dance history from 1581 to the present.
Dance Horizons:Princeton Book Company, Princeton NJ
Time
100: Artist and Entertainers - Martha Graham 
Library Receives Martha
Graham Collection
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