Martha Graham

Martha Graham was an eloquent communicator in narrative and dance.  She brought unique artistry to her choreography and took risks in order to bring innovation to her work.  As a positivist she was always aware of dimensions and practicalities in the orchestration of movement and yet her work seemed to resonate from inner feelings and experience.  She lived her work.  When her choreography was based on her personal life and relationships this was so deeply felt, part of her that in the later years of her career as she lost the ability to perform she sank into depths of depression at the realisation of a two-fold loss. One of the loss of the special relationship with her body through dance as she aged and the other in the loss of a special moment and sharing of love in her life. Seeing another dancer perform her work magnified these deeply personal feelings of loss.
As much of her work was based on a positivist approach in creating her own codified movement her work still has the ephemeral quality you would associate with spontaneity and improvisation.
In ‘heretic’ I believe the ten dancers in the background were choreographed and represent control and dictatorship and Martha Graham within is improvising for some of the time.  What do you see when you watch this? In this work she represents an overwhelming lack of control and the idea of suppression.  The music has a military feel and with each attempt to escape she is trapped and silenced.  This is drama within a dance context, powerful passionate and brilliant. As in the title - it exemplifies the courage to challenge convention. A true inspiration.