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--Martha Graham was born in Pennsylvania,
but was raised in Santa Barbara, California. Graham started
studying with the "Denishawn studio" in Los Angeles
around 1914 after she saw Ruth
St. Denis perform her Egyptia routine. Later, in 1916
she joined the Denishawn school and made her professional
debut in 1920 with Xochitl and in 1926 she gave her first
solo recital in New York. Graham started to develop new
approaches to dance through the use of movement, costumes,
psychology, facial expressions, etc.
--In 1927 she founded the
Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York.
Graham worked with music composer Louis Horst for many years.
By the 1950's she would be recognized as the leading American
Choreographer of Interpretive dancing and later in 1964
she founded the Batsheva Dance company (Tel Aviv)
also in 1967 the Contemporary Dance Theater (London).
Martha was a pioneer and legend in Modern and Contemporary
dance forms. Though continuing as a teacher and choreographer,
Grahams final dance performance was in 1969 and and retired
in 1970.
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