【名人堂】之Martha Graham（瑪莎·葛蘭姆）

『Martha Graham』 Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American dancer and choreographer regarded as one of the foremost pioneers of modern dance, whose influence on dance can be compared to the influence Stravinsky had on music, Picasso had on the visual arts, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.[1] Graham was a galvanizing performer, a choreographer of astounding productivity and originality. She invented a new language of movement, and used it to reveal the passion, the rage and the ecstasy common to human experience. She danced and choreographed for over seventy years, and during that time was the first dancer ever to perform at The White House, the first dancer ever to travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and the first dancer ever to receive the highest civilian award of the USA: the Medal of Freedom. In her lifetime she received honors ranging from the key to the City of Paris to Japan's Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. She said "I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable." Biography ------------------------------ Early life Martha Graham was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania in 1894. Her father George Graham was what in the Victorian era was known as an "alienist," an early form of Psychiatry. The Grahams were strict Presbyterians. Dr. Graham was a third generation American of Irish descent and her mother Jane Beers was a tenth generation descendant of Puritan Miles Standish. With a physician's salary, the Grahams had a high standard of living. Dr. Graham often brought home to his wife strawberries in the dead of winter when they were very exotic and difficult to come by. The Graham children were looked after by a live-in Irish maid. They were a proper family in the upper echelon of Pittsburgh society. While the social status in which she was raised contributed to her access to education and refinement, it would also work against Martha as the eldest daughter of a prominent physician would be strongly discouraged from considering any career in the performing arts. A new era in dance In 1926, the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance was established. One of her students was heiress Bethsabée de Rothschild with whom she became close friends. When Rothschild moved to Israel and established the Batsheva Dance Company in 1965, Graham became the company's first director, groomed its first generation of dancers, and created dances for the company. In 1936, Graham made her defining work, "Chronicle", which signaled the beginning of a new era in contemporary dance. The dance brought serious issues to the stage for the general public in a dramatic manner. Influenced by the Wall Street Crash, the Great Depression and the Spanish Civil War, it focused on depression and isolation, reflected in the dark nature of both the set and costumes. In 1948, Graham married Erick Hawkins (a principal dancer in her company), who was fifteen years younger than she was. Although Graham was not really interested in marriage as an institution, she felt that after eight years of living with Hawkins that marriage would be an appropriate step. Her largest-scale work, the evening-length Clytemnestra, was created in 1958, and features a score by the Egyptian-born composer Halim El-Dabh. She also collaborated with composers including Aaron Copland, such as on Appalachian Spring, Louis Horst, Samuel Barber, William Schuman, Carlos Surinach, Norman Dello Joio, and Gian Carlo Menotti[2] Graham's mother died in Santa Barbara in 1958. Her oldest friend and musical collaborator Louis Horst died in 1964. She said of Horst "His sympathy and understanding, but primarily his faith, gave me a landscape to move in. Without it, I should certainly have been lost." Graham's lighting designer Jean Rosenthal died of cancer in 1967. Graham actually despised the term "modern dance" and preferred "contemporary dance." She thought the concept of what was "modern" was constantly changing and was thus inexact as a definition. For a majority of her life Graham resisted the recording of her dances and would not allow them to be filmed or photographed. She believed the performances should exist only live on the stage and in no other form. At one point she even burned volumes of her diaries and notes to prevent them from being seen. There were a few notable exceptions. For example, she worked on a limited basis with still photographers, Imogen Cunningham in the 1930s, and Barbara Morgan in the 1940s. Graham considered Philippe Halsman's photographs of "Dark Meadows" the most complete photographic record of any of her dances. Halsman also photographed in the 1940s: "Letter to the World", "Cave of the Heart", "Night Journey" and "Every Soul is a Circus." In later years her thinking on the matter evolved and others convinced her to let them recreate some of what was lost. Graham started her career at an age that was considered late for a dancer. She was still dancing by the late 1960s, and turned increasingly to alcohol to soothe her own despair at her declining body. A younger generation who had heard of her legend went to her later performances and were confused about what all the fuss was about. Her works from this era included roles for herself which were more acted than danced and relied on the movement of the company dancing around her. Graham's love of dance was so profound that she refused to leave the stage despite critics who said she was past her prime. When the chorus of critics grew too loud, Graham finally left the stage. In her biography Martha Agnes de Mille cites Graham's last performance as the evening of May 25, 1968 in a 'Time of Snow'. But in A Dancer's Life biographer Russell Freedman lists the year of Graham's final performance as 1969. In her 1991 autobiography Blood Memory Graham herself lists her final performance as her 1970 appearance in "Cortege of Eagles" when she was 76 years old. Those who had the privilege of seeing her perform in her prime have attested to her precision, form and mesmerizing brilliance as a dancer on stage. Though she is arguably one of the most important choreographers in the history of dance (and perhaps one of the most important artists of the 20th century) she always said that she preferred to be known and remembered as a dancer. In the years that followed her departure from the stage Graham sank into a deep depression fueled by views from the wings of young dancers performing many of the dances she had choreographed for herself and her former husband Erick Hawkins. Graham's health declined precipitously as she abused alcohol to numb her pain. In Blood Memory she wrote: It wasn't until years after I had relinquished a ballet that I could bear to watch someone else dance it. I believe in never looking back, never indulging in nostalgia, or reminiscing. Yet how can you avoid it when you look on stage and see a dancer made up to look as you did thirty years ago, dancing a ballet you created with someone you were then deeply in love with, your husband? I think that is a circle of hell Dante omitted. [When I stopped dancing] I had lost my will to live. I stayed home alone, ate very little, and drank too much and brooded. My face was ruined, and people say I looked odd, which I agreed with. Finally my system just gave in. I was in the hospital for a long time, much of it in a coma. Graham not only survived her hospital stay but she rallied. In 1972 she quit drinking, returned to her studio, reorganized her company and went on to choreograph ten new ballets and many revivals. Her last completed ballet was 1990's Maple Leaf Rag. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1976 by President Gerald Ford (the First Lady Betty Ford had danced with Graham in her youth). Graham choreographed until her death from pneumonia in 1991 at the age of 96. She was cremated, and her ashes were spread over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico. In 1998, Time listed her as the "Dancer of the Century" and as one of the most important people of the 20th century. The most requested dance materials at the New York Public Library have to do with the work of Martha Graham. Martha Graham Dance Company ------------------------------ The Martha Graham Dance Company is the oldest dance company in America [3] and continues to perform, including at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in June 2008, a program consisting of: Ruth St. Denis' The Incense; Graham's reconstruction of Ted Shawn's Serenata Morisca; Graham's Lamentation; Yuriko's reconstruction of Graham's Panorama, performed by dancers from Skidmore College; excerpts from Yuriko's and Graham's reconstruction of the latter's Chronicle from the Julien Bryan film; Graham's Errand into the Maze and Maple Leaf Rag. Quotes ------------------------------ According to Agnes de Mille: "I was bewildered and worried that my entire scale of values was untrustworthy. ... I confessed that I had a burning desire to be excellent, but no faith that I could be. Martha said to me, very quietly, There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others." from The Life and Work of Martha Graham "It was [Robert Edmond] Jones who used to say to his classes, Some of you are doomed to be artists. Martha picked up this phrase and used it many times thereafter. She also borrowed from him the phrase doom-eager, which he had borrowed from Ibsen." from The Life and Work of Martha Graham Quotes from the public ------------------------------ "Dancer of the Century" - 1998, TIME Magazine Named as one of the Female "Icons of the Century" - 1998, People Magazine "Brilliant, young dancer" - 1998, New York Times "A National Treasure" - 1976, President Gerald R. Ford Choreography ------------------------------ 1926 - Chorale. Music by César Franck. 1926 - Novelette. Music by Robert Schumann. 1927 - Lugubre. Music by Alexander Scriabin. 1927 - Revolt. Music by Arthur Honegger. 1927 - "Fragilité." Music by Scriabin 1927 - Scherza. Music by Robert Schumann. 1929 - Figure of a Saint. Music by George Frideric Handel. 1929 - Resurrection. Music by Tibor Harsanyi. 1929 - Adolescence. Music by Paul Hindemith. 1929 - Danza. Music by Darius Milhaud. 1929 - "Vision of the Apocalypse". Music by Hermann Reutter 1929 - Moment Rustica. Music by Francis Poulenc. 1929 - Heretic. Music from folklore (old Breton song—de Sivry). 1930 - Lamentation. Music by Zoltán Kodály. 1930 - Harlequinade. Music by Ernst Toch. 1931 - Primitive Mysteries. Music by Louis Horst. 1931 - Bacchanale. Music by Wallingford Riegger. 1931 - Dolorosa. Music by Heitor Villa-Lobos. 1935 - Praeludium. Music by Paul Nordoff. 1935 - "Frontier". Music by Louis Horst. 1935 - Course. Music by George Antheil. 1936 - Steps in the Street (part of Chronicle). 1936 - Chronicle. Music by Wallingford Riegger and lighting by Jean Rosenthal. 1936 - Horizons. Music by Louis Horst. 1936 - Salutation. Music by Lehman Engel. 1937 - Deep Song. Music by Henry Cowell. 1937 - Opening Dance. Music by Norman Lloyd. 1937 - Immediate Tragedy. Music by Henry Cowell. 1937 - American Lyric. Music by Alex North. 1938 - American Document. Music by Ray Green. 1939 - Columbiad. Music by Louis Horst. 1939 - Every Soul is a Circus. Music by Paul Nordoff. 1940 - El Penitente. Music by Louis Horst. 1940 - Letter to the World. Music by Hunter Johnson. 1941 - Punch and the Judy. Music by Robert McBride. 1942 - Land Be Bright. Music by Arthur Kreutz. 1943 - Deaths and Entrances. Music by Hunter Johnson. 1943 - Salem Shore. Music by Paul Nordoff. 1944 - Appalachian Spring. Music by Aaron Copland. 1944 - Imagined Wing. Music by Darius Milhaud. 1944 - Hérodiade. Music by Paul Hindemith. 1946 - Dark Meadow. Music by Carlos Chávez. 1946 - Cave of the Heart. Music by Samuel Barber. 1947 - Errand into the Maze. Music by Gian Carlo Menotti, sets by Isamu Noguchi and lighting by Jean Rosenthal. 1947 - Night Journey, Martha Graham. Music by William Schuman. 1948 - Diversion of Angels. Music by Norman Dello Joio. 1950 - Judith. Music by William Schuman. 1951 - The Triumph of St. Joan. Music by Norman Dello Joio. 1954 - Ardent Song. Music by Alan Hovhaness. 1955 - Seraphic Dialogue. Music by Norman Dello Joio. 1958 - Clytemnestra. Music by Halim El-Dabh. 1958 - Embattled Garden. Music by Carlos Surinach. 1959 - Episodes. Commissioned by New York City Ballet to music by Anton Webern. 1960 - Acrobats of God. Music by Carlos Surinach. 1960 - Alcestis. Music by Vivian Fine. 1961 - Visionary Recital (revised as Samson Agonistes in 1962). Music by Robert Starer. 1961 - One More Gaudy Night. Music by Halim El-Dabh. 1962 - Phaedra. Music by Robert Starer. 1962 - A Look at Lightning. Music by Halim El-Dabh. 1962 - Secular Games. Music by Robert Starer. 1962 - Legend of Judith. Music by Mordecai Seter. 1963 - Circe. Music by Alan Hovhaness. 1965 - The Witch of Endor. Music by William Schuman. 1967 - Cortege of Eagles. Music by Eugene Lester. 1968 - A Time of Snow. Music by Norman Dello Joio. 1968 - Plain of Prayer. Music by Eugene Lester. 1968 - The Lady of the House of Sleep. Music by Robert Starer. 1969 - The Archaic Hours. Music by Eugene Lester. 1973 - Mendicants of Evening (revised as Chronique in 1974). Music by David Walker. 1973 - Myth of a Voyage. Music by Alan Hovhaness. 1974 - Holy Jungle. Music by Robert Starer. 1974 - Jacob's Dream. Music by Mordecai Seter. 1975 - Lucifer. Music by Halim El-Dabh. 1975 - Adorations. Music by Mateo Albéniz, Domenico Cimarosa, John Dowland and Girolamo Frescobaldi 1975 - Point of Crossing. Music by Mordecai Seter. 1975 - The Scarlet Letter. Music by Hunter Johnson. 1977 - O Thou Desire Who Art About to Sing. Music by Meyer Kupferman. 1977 - Shadows. Music by Gian Carlo Menotti. 1978 - The Owl and the Pussycat. Music by Carlos Surinach. 1978 - Ecuatorial. Music by Edgard Varèse. 1978 - Flute of Pan. Traditional music. 1978 or 1979 - Frescoes. Music by Samuel Barber. 1979 - Episodes (reconstructed and reworked). Music by Anton von Weber. 1980 - Judith. Music by Edgard Varèse. 1981 - Acts of Light. Music by Carl Nielsen. 1982 - Dances of the Golden Hall. Music by Andrzej Panufnik. 1982 - Andromanche's Lament. Music by Samuel Barber. 1983 - Phaedra's Dream. Music by George Crumb. 1984 - The Rite of Spring. Music by Igor Stravinsky. 1985 - Song. Romanian folk music played on the pan flute by Gheorghe Zamfir with Marcel Cellier on the organ. 1986 - Temptations of the Moon. Music by Béla Bartók. 1986 - Tangled Night. Music by Klaus Egge. 1987 - Persephone. Music by Igor Stravinsky. 1988 - Night Chant. Music by R. Carlos Nakai. 1990 - Maple Leaf Rag. Music by Scott Joplin and costumes by Calvin Klein. 1991 - The Eyes of the Goddess (unfinished). 以上節錄自：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Graham