GRAHAM, MARTHA

born May 11, 1894, Allegheny county, Pa., U.S. died April 1, 1991, New York, N.Y. influential American dancer, teacher, and choreographer of modern dance, whose ballets and other works were intended to "reveal the inner man." Over more than 50 years she created more than 180 works, from solos to large-scale works, in most of which she herself danced. She gave modern dance new depth as a vehicle for the intense and forceful expression of primal emotions. Additional reading Biographies include LeRoy Leatherman, Martha Graham (1966); Don McDonach, Martha Graham (1973); and Agnes de Mille, Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham (1991). Merle Armitage (ed.), Martha Graham (1937, reprinted 1978), contains articles, reviews, and pictures of Martha Graham's Dance Theatre. Barbara Morgan, Martha Graham: Sixteen Dances in Photographs, rev. ed. (1980), is also informative. Reminiscences by Graham's dancers and students can be found in Marian Horosko (compiler), Martha Graham: The Evolution of Her Dance Theory and Training, 1926-1991 (1991), by 26 of her students, with descriptions of dance movements; and Robert Tracy, Goddess: Martha Graham's Dancers Remember (1997).