This course allows students to experience the Graham Technique in a way that differs from routine daily practice, highlighting why and how Martha Graham originally created these movements. Students will explore Graham’s works according to her intentions: as a means of entering deeply into the body, unveiling landscapes of sensation, and viewing dance as a mirror of life. Martha Graham (1894–1991) was a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she is known as the mother of modern dance. Over the course of her career, she created 181 works that explored universal human emotions and the experiences of modern life. She developed a revolutionary technique based on contraction, release, and spiral. Her movement vocabulary begins at the core, guided by breath, and reflects the body’s natural connection to the earth. The spiral originates in the pelvis and travels through the spine, opening space at every point it passes, offering dancers a method for creating powerful and expressive forms. Graham was a force of nature who elevated dance into a profound and universal language, comparable to twentieth-century giants such as Picasso. She did not ask dancers to perform; she asked them to find truth through movement. Contraction and release are the tides of emotion. Each pulse carries sorrow, strength, or rebirth. Graham taught that to move in this way is to allow the body to speak what words cannot express. Dance begins where language ends, and the body itself carries meaning.

Implemented by Department of Dance
Date: 2025/12/04