There are always ancestral footsteps behind me, pushing me, when I am creating a new dance, and gestures are flowing through me.
When I began my research for Mawr Steps I gathered information on Martha Graham, her dancers, her technique, her body of work, the politics that this dance referenced, etc. But I also sought to learn something about the history of dance at Bryn Mawr College. Because it is not just Graham’s legacy that this project is involved with, of course, it is our legacy too.
I was surprised – and incredibly excited – to find that these two great legacies have been intertwined for decades!
Below are pages from the March 1, 1939 edition of Bryn Mawr’s College News.
(Here is a PDF version of the paper in its entirety.)
The review continued on Page 3
Front page: “Martha Graham Evokes History In New Dance”
(via BMC Special Collections Repository)
The front page headline reads: “Martha Graham Evokes History In New Dance,” reported from Goodhart Auditorium on February 23, 1939. So, 75 years ago Martha Graham herself performed on the same stage that Steps in the Street will be performed on tomorrow and Saturday nights. What’s more – Graham was performing works at Bryn Mawr (in 1939) created during the same period of her career as Steps (1936).
The serendipitous parallels are truly uncanny.
Annie,
I had a really lovely experience reading your blog post for the Graham reconstruction project. Informative & inspiring…….
I loved what Jennifer Conley – Martha Graham Reconstructionist said about the experience of teaching these dances –
“You’re talking about igniting something in the minds & hearts of others so that they can carry it on illuminating something in their own lives in someway” ….an inspiring context for an instructor to have.
I enjoyed the entry where you to talk about the angularness of the Graham style & shapes of that period. I thought the photos you used were perfect. They illustrated the comment made of Martha Graham’s work at that time …so angular that one could birth a cube.
“Graham Technique & Me” – loved your description of your experience participating in the warm up Jennifer Conley did with the dancers using the Graham technique. Once a piece is performed, the dancers make it look so easy. However, to participate in the warm up, learning the vocabulary of the movement, the “pronunciation” of each aspect of the movement at it’s most basic core, gives you, the viewer …… the blogger, a profound appreciation for the artistry of the piece and the details woven it it execution.
I appreciated your reflection of the period in history when this work emerged. “Form & History” gave me enough background to understand the influence of the events of the times on this budding dance icon. It gave me more appreciation for the evolving of a person and their talent and a reminder that we all are doing our best at this moment in time as we progress on our own journey through this one precious life we are living.
I thought the questions you engaged in with Jennifer elicited a rich dialog filled with tidbits to consider and ponder. When you commented about the conceptual consciousness, her response talked about “the consciousness translates physically and that the physical affects the consciousness”. She goes on to say, “one has the experience of traveling through time….. a transcendence”. The dance experience is “like a prayer. It is like an honoring, an offering”. Such a beautiful thought to hold in my heart each and every time I have the opportunity to dance alone or with others. What if I brought this possibility of honoring & offering to each and every moment of my movement. What would be possible. What would emerge from my consciousness and how would that translate into the physical. Something I am going to take on for the summer, a time for me to do my own exploration, experience my own dance and if successful, emerge in September with a new awareness of my inner expressive self.
A wonderful blog…. informative and stimulating to this reader!
Thank you,
Yasmin
Yasmin Goodman
Organized At Last, LLC
Bringing freedom and ease to your personal and professional life through organization.