Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham - Couverture rigide

De Mille Agnes

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0091752191 ISBN 13 : 9780091752194

Editeur : Hutchinson, 1992

Synopsis

Martha Graham was a visionary genius, a choreographer and dancer who single-handedly invented a new language of dance. She was also a tempestuous and unrelenting taskmaster and a woman who would sacrifice everything - love, friendship, money - for the sake of her art. De Mille was Graham's friend from the 1920s until Graham's death in 1991. This biography provides a portrait of the creator of "Clytemnestra", "Seraphic Dialogue" and "Appalachian Spring". De Mille also reveals Graham's stormy emotional life - including her failed marriage to Eric Hawkins, her forced retirement as a dancer at 72, her decline into alcoholism and her remarkable rebirth.

A propos du livre

Kirkus Reviews

Eye-opening, riveting, enlightening, uplifting--Martha Graham's life and times seen through the discerning, appreciative eye of Agnes de Mille. This is an earthier, more human Graham than in her own Blood Memory (p. 839); it is also a more detailed look at the era. Graham's vision was so focused that she was unaware of, or thought unimportant, the surroundings, players, intrigues; she was also extremely private. De Mille can and does give us the fuller picture. De Mille met Graham in the early Denishawn days in California; their lives and careers intertwined ever after with varying degrees of intensity. They were friends, worked with many of the same people, and kept a critical eye on each other's work. Graham's strength and will were apparent certainly by her teens; her genius was apparent early, too. De Mille follows the development of that gift, and along the way explores in depth Graham's contemporaries, technique, and the dance world generally. This is meaty, detailed stuff, and all in de Mille's wonderful voice. On Doris Humphrey: ``...she analyzed everything. It was not enough that a fall or lean could be lovely. She had to explain why...Her own dancing seemed to have little personality, while Martha's was electrifying.'' On the relationship between a choreographer's physique and his work, and Graham's in particular: she claimed that she always choregraphed falls on the left because the heart is on the left. ``Maybe so,'' says de Mille, ``but to this dancer it seems that it really was because her left leg and thigh were stronger and more stretched out.'' De Mille drops a number of bombshells here, particularly in her discussions of Graham's emotional life. She had stormy, sometimes physically abusive (by both parties) relationships in her life. De Mille describes the two most intense crises: Graham's failed marriage to Erick Hawkins; and her forced retirement as a dancer, in 1968, at age 72. This latter precipitated a physical collapse that de Mille names convincingly as being alcoholic. ``Martha got well, in her own way, in her own time, and without alcohol. Martha rose from the dead, and verily, she was changed now.'' A loving, respectful, but always cleareyed account of the human Graham. A must for fans of Graham's, de Mille's, dance- -indeed, anyone wanting a clear picture of a creative era that is fast drawing to a close. (Thirty-two pp. of b&w photos--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Hutchinson
• Date d'édition: 1992
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0091752191
• ISBN 13: 9780091752194
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 512
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible