| Biography 
American dancer and choreographer Martha Graham was a  revolutionary
  artist   of  modern  dance  in  the  early  20th  century.  Born  in
  Allegheny, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in  May  1894,  her
  family  moved  to  California  when  she was 10. She was inspired at
  that early age to become a  dancer  when  she  saw  Ruth  St.  Denis
  perform  her exotic "Epytia" modern dance in 1914. After much study,
  Graham brought a different dynamics  and  interpretation  to  modern
  dance,  one  of sharp angles and natural motion. Graham's father was
  an "alienist," a term used at the turn of  the  century  describe  a
  physician  who  specialized  in  human  psychology.  Dr.  Graham was
  interested in the way people used their bodies,  and  that  interest
  was  passed  on  to  his eldest daughter. Martha frequently repeated
  her father's maxim of "Movement never lies." Her  abstract  approach
  to  dance  and  her  minimal use of costumes and set decorations was
  disconcerting to audiences accustomed to the lovely fluid  movements
  of  modern  dance  introduced earlier by the likes of Isadora Duncan
  (many critics accused Graham of making dance  "ugly").  What  Graham
  wanted  to  evoke with her style of dance was a heightened awareness
  of life. She eventually developed a strong following  and  won  over
  the  critics.  Her  dance  themes  were  inspired by America's past,
  biblical   stories,   historical   figures,   classical   mythology,
  primitive  rituals,  and  surprisingly,  psychoanalyst  Carl  Jung's
  writings, Emily Dickinson's poems, Georgia O'Keefe's paintings,  and
  Zen  Buddhism.  She  danced with such a passion that her presence on
  stage was electrifying. Graham founded the Dance  Repertory  Theater
  in  New  York  in  1930.  She  was  the  first  dancer  to receive a
  Guggenheim fellowship in 1932. From 1931 to 1935, Graham toured  the
  United  States  in  the  production "Electra." She was fascinated by
  different cultures, and her interest  in  Native  Americans  of  the
  southwest  United  States  was  first  embodied  in  the  production
  "Primitive Mysteries." In 1937, she danced  for  Pres.  Franklin  D.
  Roosevelt  at  the  White House. Her most famous dance, "Appalachian
  Spring," was first performed in 1944. Graham  gave  her  last  stage
  performance  in  1968,  at age 74. In all, she produced 181 original
  ballets. A year before her death in 1990, she choreographed, at  age
  95,  Scott  Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag"; the show featured costumes by
  Calvin Klein.
 Biography courtesy of the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com).
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