When she started there she was twenty-two and they did not think she was good enough to be a performer, they saw her as a teacher. In the beginning of Martha’s career she tough little children. Her career began when she performed the solo Sereata Morisca choreographed by Ted Shawn. She remained with Denishawn from 1916 to 1923.During the 1930’s, her work was focused on emotional themes. Her famous solo, “Lamentation,” for example, was a portrait of a grieving women, sitting on a bench moving to an anguished Kodaly piano score. Graham performed her entire solo form a seated position; she “...wore a long tube of material to indicate the tragedy that obsesses the body, the ability to stretch inside your own skin.”(Martha 117) The piece consisted of the stretching of material into distended and jagged forms, which was said to be a symbol the interior landscape of anguish and grief. Lamentation‘s was recognized as her Martha’s first masterpiece. Martha gave her last performance at the age of seventy-two years old in 1968. The same year she collapsed and was taken to the hospital under care of a doctor. She was then told that her illness was terminal. Martha had Cirrhosis of the liver. Little did she know that she was dying of alcoholism. Miss Graham passed away in 1991 at the age of ninety-six. Her influences to dance will forever go on. Martha offered a unique style to modern dance. It is evident throughout Martha’s career that she was a different individual. She became successful because of her devotion to practice, her uniqueness, and her forceful technique. Martha Graham will always live on. ...
