In Jennifer’s words: “The goal of the contraction is expansion.” I found this prompt to be most important to the articulation of emotion and most challenging to physically accomplish. I learned from the lion the inevitability of return, the shifting of one’s body. I walked to the Central Park Zoo and sat on a bench across from a lion in its cage…Finally, I learned to walk that way. Graham wrote, in Blood Memory, of her first days in New York: The dancers in Carrie’s class practice balancing/shifting weight while maintaining still, upright torsos Breathing in is a release and breathing out, a contraction. Martha Graham developed her technique around the relationship between breath and emotion, which is embodied in her method of contraction and release. What did I learn about Graham technique through these experiences? The complexity of simple movement! Made so by those equal and opposite forces I mentioned earlier. These consisted of standard Graham technique floor work interspersed with exercises tailored more specifically to the choreography of Steps in the Street. I also took an Advanced Modern class during the first half of the semester, in which Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch was teaching Graham technique. Therefore, to inform my documentation of Mawr Steps (and for my own edification and enjoyment!) I took part in the warm ups that Jennifer began each rehearsal with. Though I knew, conceptually, who Martha Graham was and what modern dance looked like, I had zero kinesthetic knowledge of this dance form. I had no experience with Graham technique – and very limited experience with modern dance in general – before becoming involved with this project. I now know this to be an integral part of Graham technique, which involves isometric exercises designed to highlight and enhance the strength and power of the physical body.

This would be done through a focus on equal and opposite forces. It’s true that the shapes made through Graham’s choreography are not the demurely graceful ones of classical ballet and the quality of movement created by her early technique is not classically feminine – that is, silken and smooth – either.ĭuring those first few weekends of rehearsals with Jennifer Conley, she spoke to the dancers about “shaping the space” with their bodies. In those early days a favorite of mine, the critic Stark Young, said to a friend, ‘Must I join you at Martha’s dance concert tonight? All that percussive angular movement -I am so afraid she’ll give birth to a cube.” In her autobiography, Blood Memory, Martha Graham wrote:

Blood memory by martha graham