Graham, Martha (1894-1991)

Fashion designer Halston pictured with Martha Graham at a party held in her honour at Studio 54, New York City, USA, on 13 October 1981. His designs were noted for their chic and elegant style.

US dancer, choreographer, teacher, and director. The greatest exponent of modern dance in the USA, she developed a distinctive vocabulary of movement, the Graham Technique, now taught worldwide. Her pioneering technique, designed to express inner emotion and intention through dance forms, represented the first real alternative to classical ballet.

Graham founded her own dance school in 1927 and started a company with students from the school 1929. She created over 170 works, including Appalachian Spring (1944; score by Aaron Copland), Clytemnestra (1958; the first full-length modern dance work), and Lucifer (1975). She danced in most of the pieces she choreographed until her retirement from performance in the 1960s. Graham had a major influence on such choreographers in the contemporary dance movement as Robert Cohan, Glen Tetley, Merce Cunningham, Norman Morrice, Paul Taylor, and Robert North.