Old School Bohemians

MARTHA GRAHAM

NAME: Martha Graham

OCCUPATION: Dancer and Choreographer

HOMETOWN: Allegheny, Pennsylvania

YEARS IN NEW YORK: 60+, she established the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance in 1926 which started as a small dance studio on Broadway and eventually moved to a two story building on 63rd and Second Avenue

KNOWN IN NEW YORK BECAUSE…: Graham was known in New York and beyond for her stellar achievements as a dancer and choreographer. She received the highest of honors including the Medal of Freedom, the key to the city in Paris and Japan’s Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. In 1936 one of her defining works “Chronicle” came to the stage; it was influenced by the Wall Street Crash, the Great Depression and the Spanish Civil War.

THE SCENE: Her hey day was in the 1930s and 1940s, but stretched well into the 1950s and 1960s. She collaborated on works with composers such as Aaron Copland, William Schuman and Louis Horst. She created many of her dances for herself and husband Erick Hawkins.

WHY WE LOVE HER: She was doomed to be an artist, as she often put it and understood the responsibility that came with that.

“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.”

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