Essay Database

Martha Graham: A Dancer's Life by Russell Freedman Martha Graham(1894-1991) was a dancer, choreographer, and teacher for more than 70 years, and during that time she changed the landscape of dance forever. In 1998 TIME Magazine named Martha Graham as the Dancer of the Century, and People Magazine named her among the female "Icons" of the Century. She created 181 ballets and a dance technique that has been compared to ballet in its scope and magnitude. Many …

…the Goddess for the Olympics in Barcelona when she died in 1991 at the age of ninety-six. She is universally understood to be the twentieth century's most important dancer, and the mother of modern dance. Her contributions to the art of stage design and dance production are countless, being the first modern dance choreographer to regularly employ both Asian and African-American dancers and fully use collaborations with other modern artists to create her dance theatre masterpieces.