Martha Graham

Martha Graham (1894 – 1991) is recognised as a primal artistic force of the 20th century. She was named “Dancer of the Century” by Time and has been compared with other creative giants such as Picasso, Einstein, Stravinsky and Freud. She created 181 ballets and a technique that revolutionized dance throughout the greater part of the past century. Using the founding principles of contraction and release, she built a vocabulary of movement to “increase the emotional activity of the dancer’s body,” exploring the depth and diversity of human emotion. Her ballets were inspired by a wide range of sources from the American Frontier to Greek Mythology. She created and portrayed prominent women, including Clytemnestra, Jocasta, Medea, Phaedra, Joan of Arc and Emily Dickenson. During her 70 years of creating dance, she collaborated with other great artists Noguchi, Copland, Barber and Schuman, and her mentor Louis Horst, among others, and is recognised for her groundbreaking work in all aspects of the theatre.
Her company was a training ground for many generations of choreographers including Cunningham, Taylor and Tharp.
Martha Graham’s extraordinary legacy lives on in the work of the Martha Graham Dance Company, Ensemble and School, and in the students worldwide studying her technique and performing her masterworks.

“Steps in the Street” dates from the time Martha Graham had only women in the company. On the surface it is one of her early works- revealing the exceptional mixture of simplicity of presentation and dazzling complexity of underlying structure that made Martha Graham the towering figure she is in 20th century modern art.

Peter London, former Principal Dancer of the Martha Graham Dance Company and the now the Associate Artistic Director of the Martha Graham Dance Company is an alumnus of the Caribbean School of Dancing, He staged “Steps in the Streets” on Metamorphosis Dance Company. This will be the first time ever that Non-Graham company dancers will be allowed to dance Graham repertoire. Metamorphosis hosted Mr. Peter London and Miss Diane Gray of the Martha Graham Company in August 2006.

Contact information:
Address: 2A Dere Street
Port of Spain
Republic of Trinidad & Tobago
The Caribbean
Phone/Fax: 868-625-3225
E-mail: info@metamorphosisdance.com