Women in Modern Dance |
| Introduction | Women in Modern Dance | Martha Graham | Isadora Duncan | Three Women |
The Greatest Three Dancing Women in the Twentieth Centuryby Lorena Ochoa R. Even though there have been relatively few women choreographers and dance company directors, during the twentieth century women were central to dance form and meaning. My essay will be focus on three particular women who have been most influential, Maria Tallchief, Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham. Maria Tallchief is an outstanding American Indian woman who has a lot to share from her own vivid experiences related to the art of dance. This means about her entire life, since her childhood experiences, formal training, obstacles that she had to overcome and latter on her achievements and successes.Maria Tallchief roots and education gave her an incredible ability to create one of the most vital chapters in the history of American Dance. On the other hand, Isadora Duncan attributes to the world of dance are also outstanding, this is why today Maria Tallchief and Isadora Duncan are recognized as two of the most accomplished ballerinas to come out from the United States. Also, Isadora Duncan was the first modern dancer on the twenty century to raise her profession to the level of a creative art. The last but not least woman that I want to talk about is Martha Graham, her choreography carrier is well known, she was also a dancer and developed her own dance-technique. Martha Graham wanted to make modern dance more popular and in different ways her dances reflected the American society. The main idea of the essay is to show how these three women needed to overcome obstacles before prominence and achieve their dreams. Maria Tallchief Maria Tallchief was born in Oklahoma in the year of 1925 today she is living in Chicago. She started playing the piano and taking ballet lessons at the age of three. By the time she started school she was all ready performing in Osage County.When she was a child she often attended tribal dance ceremonies with her grandmother. It is important to mention that at that time, ballet as an art form was relatively new. When Maria and her younger sister Marjorie started growing, her mother, Ruth Tallchief and her husband decided to move to Beverly Hills, California, because of the lack of education in the Osage reservation. That was when Maria started with a serious program of piano and ballet lessons.She has a sister Marjorie who also dances. When they were young they move to Los Angeles and there was when Maria started working with Nijinska,he was one of the best dance teachers at the moment, which latter introduced her to the world of professional dancing. After Maria graduated from Beverly Hills high school, she made her professional debut with the New York-based Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. At the time this company was one of the two leading ballet companies in the United States. Her first big performance was the "Chopin Concerto", and from them criics started praising and people predicted that Maria Tallfchief was a young ballerina to watch. Later on, her two performances with more relevance bought people from all over the world. Her most brilliant play was the "Firebird" and the "Snow Queen". Maria Tallchief birth name is Betty Marie Tallchief, then she Europeanized her name to Maria Tallchief, and today this is by the name that people know her on the world of dance. Most of the Native American ballerinas began their careers on the Ballet Russe; this was a Russian company in exile. After some of her appearances, favorable critics started rising and audiences alike recognized her in the ballet theater. For a while many dancers found it difficult to accept that a Native American had the talent to excel at ballet and like in many other activities, there is always someone that is jealous of you ability and does not accept your success. Maria Tallchief is considered as the first truly American prima ballerina, this is the biggest honor that a ballet dancer can achieve, meaning that she was the most outstanding dancer at that time. She also, was the first United States citizen to dance at the Paris Opera and was prima ballerina of the New York City Ballet for fifteen years. Her beauty and incredible techniques fascinated audiences until the day she stopped dancing. She retired from the stage at the age of forty. After that she continue her presence in the world of ballet. She first became a teacher and latter a lobbyist, fundraiser and also publicist for the arts. After a long career, in 1946 Maria Tallchief married the forty-year-old Balanchine, he was one of the most outstanding choreographers at the time. During the years of 1950’s and early 60’s, Tallchief reached her highest success as a classical dancer. During the years 50’s, Tallchief personal life started suffering difficulties; her marriage was annulled in 1952. After that she got married again in 1954 and got divorce in two years. Later on, in 1956 she got married again with Henry D. Paschen; a Chicago construction company executive who supported her carrier ambitions. In 1959 she had her only child, Elise Maria and a year latter she retired from stage because she needed to spend more time with her family. After her retirement, during the years of 1970’s and 1980’s she brought to the Chicago performing arts scene the same determination that she had on stage. In 1974, her dream of having an academy became true, it was the Ballet School of the Lyrics Opera and started teaching younger dancers the Balanchine techniques and traditions that had shape her own style. Even though Maria Tallchief spent a lot of her time life in Europe and interacting with Euro-American culture, she has always been proud of her Native-American heritage. She is member of the Association on American Indian Affairs, she frequently speak to Native American groups about Indians and the arts. She also participates in education programs to educate students about Native Americans culture. In 1991 she became a member of the National Campaign of the National Museum of the American Indian. Isadora Duncan After having a hard start in the world of dance, Isadora Duncan became part of the American history in the twenty-century. At the beginning of her career, she struggle in America,this means that she had a very hard time dealing with dance company directors and choreographers that did not accepted her form of dance at that time. This is why she decided to go to Europe (London) where she achieved a very high recognition as a dancer of lyric, beauty, bodily release and extraordinary musicality. Later on by the year of 1908 she returned to America triumphantly and found people that respect and admired her form of dance. She brought to the States an innovative form of dance, she was fully of new techniques.Duncan’s dancing brings people from all over the world and questions about gender roles, industrial culture, race and aesthetic issues in America. Isadora gives the impression and the illusion of a static beauty, she sculpture her dances and poses. This is also very similar to what Maria Tallchief did, both of them needed to go to Europe to achieve their dreams and later on became popular in America.Isadora Duncan presented herself in the world of dance as a "subject-in-process". Because of her new and different styles, her presentations where a complete success in Europe, she attracted a different variety of audiences, from the lower class writers to the high-class viewers. She is against the popular theatrical dance, she always said that it is very superficial. She likes natural movements and natural expressions. Her way of dance is by using body movements, she said that dance is the movement of the human body in harmony with the movements of the earth. She also encouraged that movements are derived from running, jumping, skipping and standing. For her, each dance was unique, she said that the body expressed thoughts and feelings. Her dances and movements were particularly attractive and her goal was to celebrate by the dance the beauty of women and the female body, reflecting the new women of this period. Her appreciation for the art was inspired by the Greek culture. At the year of 1913, Isadora Duncan was on the summit of her carrier but at the same time her personal life was becoming a tragedy; she had two children who died in an accident. After that, her husband named Sergei Yasenin also died, he committed suicide. In 1927, Isadora Duncan had a car accident and died instantaneously. She left no work that could be performed again and, no school or teaching method. Today thank to her creations, techniques and examples the world of dance has being enriched. She left a new view of movement that has revolutionized the dance. She was the first dancer and choreographer who tried to change American dance and this is how Isodora Duncan is going to be always remembered. Martha Graham Graham´s works express a special interest in primitive culture, in this time she made a trip to New Mexico and became interested in the American Indian culture. She produced a lot of works related with religion and later on she began to develop a line of choreography that was related with the American Mythic heritage. The name of her first work is called "Frontier". In her work, Martha Graham always tried to express her feelings about Americans, mentioning her personal and unique characteristics of being an American citizen. With this she created history of the United States and later her work became a modern America classic. We clearly can see that in various ways her works were influenced by the political and social climate of the decade. She had a lot of attention for social issues and in some cases she used on her work an explicit form to address some political issues. By the year of 1930 her work was revolutionary and she became famous in America, this also made modern dance more popular in America. For this reason she is called one of the most important pioneers of America Modern dance. Today, this style of dance still has a big reputation in the United States and also, internationally. Even though there will be always a controversy about the acceptance of women during the 20th century, Maria Tallchief, Isadora Duncan, and Martha Graham are three of the best examples two show that women were relevant in the twenty century and that these three brilliant women had penetrated their forms, movements, ideas of teaching and new techniques for the rest of dance history, they will be remembered for ever. The three brilliant women had been some of the relatively few women had a big impact on the 20th century, talking about dance. The three of these women fought extremely hard to succeed and achieve what they wanted to achieve. Today just one of the three women is alive and is Maria Tallchief. She is today one of the few dance company directors and I believe that she is doing an incredible job, because she is ha ving a big impact on people's career and future. The three of these outstanding artists had a difficult background and the three of them some how succeded and achieved their dreams. Their strong convictions is what made them as strong as they were and in the case of Maria Tallchief that she is today. In this essay we clearly can see how hard these three brilliant women work to achieve what they wanted to achieve. No matter what, they always find the way to overcome difficulties through their life, this is what make them as special as they are. Sources:
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