May 11
Born Today:
Martha Graham
Modern dance pioneer Martha Graham (1894-1991) began her dance training around her twenties and studied with the Denishawn school and performed with the company before starting her own company in New York in the mid 1920s. Graham stepped away from costumed solos and created a technique centered around contraction and release of the core. She was more concerned with creating dances that reflected inner emotions than devising pleasing shapes or exotic solos, and her style was utterly unlike ballet. Graham’s movement was grounded, stark, angular, and percussive, and she preferred to dance in bare feet. During her Greek cycle, inspired by the first male member of her company (and briefly her husband) Erick Hawkins (1909-1994), Graham explored the female psyche in dances based on tragic heroines of Greek mythology, including Cave of the Heart (1946), based on the story of Medea, and Night Journey (1947), told from Queen Jocasta’s point of view. Graham’s influence on the next generation of modern and post-modern dancers cannot be overstated and many of them danced with her before making their own mark on the field of dance.
Also Born Today: Ballerina Fanny Cerrito (1817-1909) studied with famed teacher Carlo Blasis (1797-1878) and danced in Pas de Quatre (1845), choreographed by Jules Perrot (1810-1892), along with three of the most famous dancers of the time. Early hip hop dancer Shabba Doo (1955-2020) is the stage name of Adolfo Quiñones, who starred in Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (both 1984). Broadway dancer Charlotte d'Amboise (1964-) performed in Cats (1992) and Jerome Robbins’ Broadway (1989) and is the daughter of ballet dancer/teacher Jacques d’Amboise (1934-2021) and ballerina/photographer Carolyn George (1927-2009).