Why can dancing women be juxtaposed with Einstein?

Martha Graham's name is always inlaid with Phnom Penh: she bears the title of "mother of modern dance" on her head, leaving behind a dance company that still stands at the top of modern art and a dance system that is regarded as the cornerstone of modern dance.

Barbara Morgan, The Portrait of Martha Graham, A Letter to the World.

However, mentioning her name can't help but bring out some regrets. Stage art always belongs to a moment. For young dance lovers, the dance style of this "goddess" on the stage is out of reach.

Even Fangyi Xu, known as "the Asian descendant of Martha Graham", only caught a glimpse of the 96-year-old lady who made a curtain call on the stage when Martha Graham Dance Company 1990 performed in Taiwan. Martha Graham died less than a year after that trip.

When Martha Graham was active, television was not popular, mass media was not blooming, and even the flash used for stage photography was unstable. Unlike later pina bausch, there was no film director to give her a biography, and several of her masterpieces and daily training left documentary clips. However, from those black-and-white images, it is hard to imagine what the former goddess has on the stage.

Barbara Morgan, The Portrait of Martha Graham, A Letter to the World.

Photographer Barbara Morgan has worked with Martha Graham for decades and left many unforgettable photos.

Bertram Ross, a dancer of Martha Graham Dance Company, once recalled the first time he met this dancer in new york's studio:

At the beginning of the first class, Martha Graham took out a chiffon, held it high above her head in a relaxed posture, and walked across the classroom at the usual pace on the stage. She wants to use this simple action to show the students how amazing ordinary walking can be.

Bertram Ross recalled that moment repeatedly with "unbelievable". He described it as:

"It seems that the surrounding light is dim, and a bunch of concentrated light hits her, even feeling that her skin color has changed. She burns like a fire. "

Martha Graham is also convinced of his stage charm. She once said:

"I didn't choose to be a dancer, but dance chose me."

Martha Graham was the center of attention when she said this. Woody Allen and later President Carter's wife were her students.

Decades ago, when the 22-year-old finally broke through the obstacles of her family and made up her mind to learn dance, her teacher looked at her and commented: She is a little older, a little shorter, a little heavier and a little more ordinary in appearance. At that time, her teacher would not have thought that this girl who was too old, too short, too heavy and too ordinary would become a grandmaster. I'm afraid it's hard for young Martha Graham to imagine that one day he will rewrite the dance of the 20th century.

Martha Graham and Nuriev, 1975.

Biographers like to go back to childhood and look for the initial influence of family on successful people. Unfortunately, dancing is not regarded as a decent occupation in the Kirschner family, and Martha's parents' obstruction made her formally start late. But there are still some clues that can be written into the biography. Martha Graham lied to her father when she was very young. Without blame or punishment, her father just told her, "Your actions will never lie." Later, Martha Graham tried to recall this childhood moment in her memoirs, but she couldn't remember the reason for lying anyway, but she always remembered the embarrassing moment and her father's words. My father's words were greatly exaggerated by the author of the memoir and named Martha Graham's First Lesson as a Dancer.

Barbara Morgan, portrait of Martha Graham (left), letter to the world.

Although the style of the memoir bosom friend is disgusting. However, there is no doubt that "body" plays an important role in Martha Graham's dance system. Nowadays, people say that Martha Graham is not only the "mother of modern dance", but also "an autobiography, a school, a dance company and a modern dance system". Through the spread of Taiwan Province dancers such as You and You, this "modern dance system" is widely known in Chinese-speaking areas because of its concern for breathing and body contraction.

Barbara Morgan, Portrait of Martha Graham (Part Two)

In the United States, from 65438 to the early 1920s, Ruth Saint-Denis and isadora duncan were the focus of attention. Both female dancers rebelled against the ballet tradition at that time to some extent. Duncan danced barefoot without shoes. St. Denis went to Mexico and Egypt and studied dance in these countries instead of Europe, the birthplace of ballet.

Martha Graham was infected by saint-denis's exotic performances in her early years and had a desire to learn dance. Her school is Sean Dance School run by St. Denis and her husband. After finishing school, Graham also performed in a dance company for several years, where she performed folk dances from all over the world that saint-denis was keen on, but she had a bigger dream for dancing in her heart.

Graham returned to new york, first as a dance teacher at school, and then set up his own dance company at 1926. Martha Graham spent a lot of time alone on a bench in new york Central Park Zoo. She spent a long time thinking about what it means to challenge dancing and what she can do. The lion cage not far from the bench inspired her. She felt the natural power of walking and turning from the lion's steps. Later, she incorporated the walking and turning observed from the lion's footsteps into her own dance.

Compared with Duncan and saint-denis, Graham's breakthrough in classical ballet is not in the form of gestures or wearing shoes. In her dance, the dancer's perception of breathing and body is mentioned in an important position. Ballet is hard to breathe. Now the most expensive ballet star, the Frenchman Sylvie Gillian once complained to Lin Huaimin:

"We have been holding our breath. We secretly took a breath when we were behind the audience's back. We just gasped backstage and started to breathe a little. Have you noticed that the duet is very short? "

Unlike ballet, Martha Graham's dance class usually begins by sitting underground. Dancers begin to feel their breath first, and then their bodies. When she was alive, she called her dancers "acrobats of God" and often shouted:

"Stand up and stand up straight! Remember that this is where you have wings! "

Looking back at the images in Martha Graham's early works, it is not surprising or unexpected. Compared with the modern dance on the stage today, her arrangement and movements in Chronicle and Appalachian Spring in Apara are not surprising. However, in those days, Graham's dance was shocking.

The chronicle was born in 1936, with the Spanish civil war as the background. When this dance was written, the United States was also experiencing the Great Depression. Graham incorporated sadness and loneliness into this dance-such strong feelings were hard to see in the dance of that era.

Spring in Chicks, Apara tells the story of the wedding of early American immigrants, and composer aaron copland was invited to compose for this ballet. 1944, this three-act modern ballet won a steady stream of applause and applause.

But today, 70 years later, what attracts more attention from audiences, dancers and researchers is Herodia, who was born in the same year.

1On the evening of October 30th, 1944, 10, Herodias premiered in Washington, along with Spring in Mount Apara and Wings of Imagination. That night, this 22-minute work was also called "Mirror" before me. Shortly after the premiere, Martha Graham changed her name at the suggestion of composer Paul Hindemith. Facts have proved that this decision is wise. This work opened Martha Graham's attention to mythological themes in the next twenty years.

Herodias is a duet by a woman. The heroine walked into the room and started a conversation with herself. The props on the stage are only mirrors, chairs and a black cloth. Mirrors represent bones, chairs represent self, and black cloth implies death. There is also a waitress in the work, symbolizing the heroine's other self, and they argue with each other. In fact, there is no plot in the whole dance drama, only self-repeated staring, questioning and struggling.

Stills of Herod the King, 1944-45

The dance drama is adapted from Malarme's poem of the same name, and the relationship between waitresses implies the Queen Herodias and Salome in the Bible. Although this 22-minute dance is light compared with the great works of the same period, it means a key step for Graham to enter the Jewish-Christian myth system.

After Herodias, she designed The Cave of the Mind and Clytaemestra, both of which were inspired by Greek mythology. Compared with the fairy tale itself, her dance has almost no narrative, and only focuses on shaping powerful characters.

The birth of these works really pushed Graham to the throne of the mother of modern dance. In her works, it highlights the "modernity" which is completely different from classical ballet. There is no romantic and unrealistic fantasy, but appreciation and expression of one's feelings. While releasing emotions, it also completes the perception and expression of self-body.

Scholars believe that the creation of these iconic works was greatly influenced by her husband Erick Hawkins. Hawkins, a graduate of Harvard University, was the first male to be admitted to the Martha Graham Dance Company. Most of Jungian mythological psychoanalysis theories used in these works should be written by Hawkins. The feelings with Graham and Hawkins in real life are more or less reflected in these works. Hawkins is younger than Martha Graham 15 years old. He is bisexual.

Barbara Morgan, Portraits of Martha Graham and Eric Hawkins at Bennington College, 1938

1948, lovers for 10 years, finally got married. That year, Nocturnal Travel, based on the story of Oedipus, was born. The marriage lasted only two years. After Lao Yan broke up, both of them fell into confusion. Hawkins established his own dance company, but he never got out of the shadow of his ex-wife's fame. Graham tried to arrange some dances that were not self-centered, but he was quickly hit by the comments.

Martha Graham's life in her later years was not smooth. She suffers from alcoholism and was hospitalized for alcoholism and mental illness. However, in the1980s, she stepped out of the trough and began to choreograph again. Perhaps because of the experience of going to sea, the dance choreographed in his later years was considered more touching by many commentators.

199 1 year, she died at the age of 96, choreographed to the last minute, and really practiced her sentence:

"Dancing is my reason to live."