Document Type
Essay
Publication Date
Spring 2025
Abstract
Second-generation modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham is, to this day, recognized as one of the art form's most influential figures. Her distinctive technique, which has been applauded as a momentous innovation by critics throughout her life and after, is a dynamic mixture of elements Graham plucked from various experiences and aesthetics. Many, throughout history and to this day, mark Graham as a primary developer and architect of modern dance movement. She has continuously been labeled a pioneer of angular movement, dramatic contractions, asymmetrical posing, and the incorporation of ritualistic elements into her emotional compositions. However, such identifications fail to recognize that many of Graham's profound choreographic aesthetics had already been founded and operated as fundamentals of the Africanist aesthetic. It is also often overlooked that the foundations of Graham's dance training and style were steeped in a slew of cultural appropriation. In order to acknowledge Graham's consequential legacy and its impact on our current dance world, it is essential to understand that its roots lie within the looting of cultural aesthetics and taking credit for components that existed long before.
Recommended Citation
Entrekin, Izabella, "The Complex Legacy of Martha Graham" (2025). Richard T. Schellhase Essay Prize in Ethics. 33.
https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/ethics_essay/33
Comments
Third prize winner.