Martha Graham, page 53
“Gradually, I was able”: Lloyd, The Borzoi Book of Modern Dance, 49–50.
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“period of searching”: Kendall, Where She Danced, 209.
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In his teens: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation website of Fellowship winners (1930), https://web.archive.org/web/20060219192017/http://www.gf.org/30fellow.html.
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“very early in”: Teck, Music for the Dance, 30–32.
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“the term Gebrauchsmusik”: Ibid., 28.
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To liven up: Horgan, A Certain Climate, 217–18; Otto Leuning Papers, box 81, folder 2, Music Division, NYPL.
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“improve the visual”: RM, interview by Don McDonagh, February 4, 1972, JRDD, *MGZTL 4-2560.
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“an indication of”: “New Dance Offering on Eastman Program Wins Strong Praise,” D&C, October 26, 1925.
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Two weeks later: Thelma Biracree, interview by Don McDonagh, August 15, 1972, JRDD, *MGZTL 4-2544.
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“sole arranger”: Lenti, For the Enrichment of Community Life, 145.
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“are robed in”: D&C, “Debussy in Dance,” January 16, 1926.
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“I feel so strongly”: Schippers, Reflections of John Joseph Martin, 102.
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“That was the start”: Madden, You Call Me Louis, 53.
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Al Jones and: McDonagh, Martha Graham, 48.
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“the audience hankering”: Frances Steloff, interview by Don McDonagh, January 24, 1973, JRDD, *MGZTL 4-2564.
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“Oriental teachings”: Steloff interview, January 24, 1973; Mitgang, “Frances Steloff Is Dead at 101.”
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“the concert was a great”: K. Morgan, “Frances Steloff and the Gotham Book Mart,” 762.
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“I went down to Orchard”: MG, interview by Don McDonagh, October 19, 1968, JRDD, *MGZTL 4-2566.
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Graham sat on the floor: Debra Otte to author, March 3, 2015.
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“spring musings”: “The Gossip Shop,” Bookman 63, no. 4 (June 1926): 512. See also Betty Macdonald, in Tracy, Goddess, 7: “Martha always did our costumes. She pinned them on us, and we had to sew them together.”
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“large and distinguished”: McDonagh, Martha Graham, 50; “New York Hails Martha Graham as Fine Dancer—Metropolitan Audience Also Applauds Eastman School Pupils,” D&C, April 20, 1926.
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“many aristocrats”: “The Blessed Damozel Comes Down from Rochester,” Dance Magazine, July 1926.
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The Kinneys: “New York Hails Martha Graham,” D&C, April 20, 1926.
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“the future history of the art”: Troy and Kinney, The Dance, 358.
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“three soft childish”: “The Blessed Damozel,” Dance Magazine, July 1926.
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“curving…sculptural”: Jowitt, “A Conversation with Bessie Schonberg,” 39.
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“made eloquent”: “Dance Artists in Program of Varied Appeal—Martha Graham of Eastman School and Assistants Warmly Applauded,” D&C, May 29, 1926.
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“You know my intense”: Delage, “Ravel and Chabrier,” 546.
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“Harvest Dirge”: Alfred Kreymborg, “Harvest Dirge,” in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, 1912–22, ed. Harriet Monroe (New York: Bartleby.com, 2011), http://www.bartleby.com/300/956.html.
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The second song, “Toys”: Arthur Symons, “Toys,” http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/toys-13/.
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“Du bout de la pensée”: Preston, Modernism’s Mythic Pose, 86; Erik Satie, Le Site du Compositeur, http://www.erik-satie.com/tag/gnossienne/.
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Horst and Graham had: “Music Visualization: Excerpts,” Gnossienne choreography by TS, danced by Ralph Farrington, performed November 6, 1976, videocassette, 5 min., JRDD, *MGZIC 9-355.
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The story of Gnossiennes: Grafton, Most, and Settis, The Classical Tradition, 503–4.
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The dances were in tribute: Scully, The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods, 9–12. See Cristensen, Hammer, and Warburton, The Handbook of Religions, 109–13, for iconography of the Great Goddess, Pótnia.
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In “Frieze”: Fitton, “Three Mycenaean Terracottas,” 24–25.
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“prized for their naturalness”: “Greek Art: Fourth Century B.C.,” guide to Gallery 158, Metropolitan Museum of Art, http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/galleries/greek-and-roman/158.
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“a series of statue-poses…handful of dirt”: Preston, “Posing Modernism,” 224.
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“abstraction and essence”: Kisselgoff, “Martha Graham Offers World Premiere.”
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“in which she stood”: Selden, The Dancer’s Quest, 93.
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The loosely hanging: MG, outdoor performance, undated silent film, Martha Graham Resources, *MGDC_0196; see also “Solos,” videorecording, 20 min., for Takako Asakawa’s restaging of MG’s solo during the Terzo Festival del Balletto at the Teatro Municipale, Reggio Emilia, Italy, July 1986, JRDD, *MGZIA 4-1236.
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The fan was inspired: “New Museum Wing to Open Tomorrow,” New York Times, April 4, 1926.
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“a girl in a blue”: Richter, “New Accessions in the Classical Department,” 80–82.
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already rich collection: Richter, “Miscellaneous Accessions in the Classical Department,” 284. I am grateful to Sarah Szeliga, assistant visual resources manager in the Onassis Library for Hellenic and Roman Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for drawing my attention to these important essays by Gisela Richter.
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“of heavy gold cloth”: Dance Magazine, August 1926.
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“lovely draped batik”: “The Blessed Damozel,” Dance Magazine, July 1926.
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“fey-like girls”: [Fashion Editor], Bookman, June 1926, 512.
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“so frolicsome”: “The Blessed Damozel,” Dance Magazine, July 1926.
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“a series of pictures”: “New York Hails Martha Graham as Fine Dancer,” D&C, April 20, 1926.
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“It is my hope”: “The Leading Question—‘Why Is a Fat Lady?’ Martha Graham, Premier Danseuse, Gives the Answer,” New York Telegram, April 19, 1926.
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“[T]he groupings”: MG describing her vision for the film to Lydia Barton, in Stage & Screen, February 1926, “The Flute of Krishna (Ballet Choreographed by Martha Graham),” http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200182444/default.html.
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According to the Hindu: Scott Simmon, Note for The Flute of Krishna in Treasures of American Film Archives: 50 Preserved Films, 299; Shapiro, “Martha Graham at the Eastman School.”
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“The Denishawn influence”: Helpern, Technique of Martha Graham, 9–10.
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“Rochester has seen”: “Dance Artists in Program of Varied Appeal—Martha Graham of Eastman School and Assistants Warmly Applauded,” D&C, May 29, 1926.
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Graham’s Queen: Alceste (Alkestis) would resurface in MG’s oeuvre in the spring of 1960 with music by Vivian Fine; see The Alcestis of Euripedes, Introductory Note, by Dudley Fitts, 143–45, Four Greek Plays, 1936.
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“One cannot hope”: Kemp, “Blessed Damozel of the Concert Stage.”
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Springtime at Eastman: Thelma Biracree, interview by Don McDonagh, August 15, 1972, part 2, JRDD, *MGZTL 4-2544; repertory checklist “compiled from Eastman Theatre Programs, 1925–1926,” by professor John Mueller, University of Rochester, as addendum to Shapiro, “Martha Graham at the Eastman School.”
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Rouben Mamoulian resigned: “Rouben Mamoulian to Direct Here,” New York Times, June 7, 1926; “Rouben Mamoulian, Broadway Director, Is Dead,” New York Times, December 6, 1987.
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“it was only a question”: Horgan, A Certain Climate, 219–20.
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On June 26, after Ave Maria: Lenti, For the Enrichment of Community Life, 147–49.
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“turned, walked out”: MG, Blood Memory, 108.
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8: FROM MARIARDEN TO JOHN MARTIN
“It is a far cry from”: M. Moore, A Marianne Moore Reader, 12–13.
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“on a gray day”: Gottlieb, Reading Dance, 47.
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“a Roman candle”: Unsigned review of Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s, by Ann Douglas, Publishers Weekly, January 2, 1995.
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“the immediate excitement”: B. Gage, review of Supreme City.
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She would complain: On Graham’s “self-criticism,” see Bannerman, “Thoroughly Modern Martha,” 32.
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“a kind of ‘inside’ flu”: ALS from MG to Evelyn Sabin, January 4 and June [n.d.] 1927, Carnegie Hall Archives.
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“With modern art”: LH citing MG to Ester E. Pease, LH interview, 1958, JRDD, *MGZTC 3-2115.
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“nervous, sharp”: Koritz, Culture Makers, 100.
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“alluring stage set”: Duvert, “Georgia O’Keeffe’s Radiator Building,” 2, 14; see also Williams, Politics of Modernism, 37–48. On the “ways [in which] urban areas and dance patterns affect each other,” see Judith Lynne Hanna, “The Urban Ecosystem of Dance,” in To Dance Is Human, 198.
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Following a weekend: Mariarden concert program, August 20 and 21, 1926, box 308, MGC; Anderson-Milton School autumn 1926 semester announcement, New York Times, September 15, 1926.
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“small, odd beauty”: Sikov, Dark Victory, 26–29.
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“It must be simple”: Kemp, “Blessed Damozel of the Concert Stage.”
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“was all tension”: Bette Davis was a student of Martha Graham at the Anderson-Milton School from October 24, 1927, to January 31, 1928.
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To help pay: Background history of the Carnegie Hall Studios, and itemized roster of representative tenants from 1926 onward, provided to author by Rob Hudson and Kathleen Sabogal, Carnegie Hall Archives, August 7 and 29, 2013.
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Louis Horst found: “Carnegie Hall’s Music Colony Stays,” New York Times, February 8, 1925.
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The advertisement: MG’s ad in the New York Times, October 17, 1926, and landlord’s typescript “List of Vacancies/Season 1926–1927,” provided to author by Rob Hudson and Kathleen Sabogal, Carnegie Hall Archives.
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“who have to work”: Roberts, “The Fervid Art of Martha Graham.”
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Floor work: Soares, Louis Horst, 63, 217n22.
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“friendly and informal”: Kemp, “Blessed Damozel of the Concert Stage.”
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“she made one think”: Ibid. Janet Eilber (artistic director, Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance), email to author, August 2, 2013, notes: “I’m sure her ease at sitting in that position—her natural open hips and low center of gravity (short legs, long torso)—added to her development of the sitting floor exercises that are the basis of her technique!”
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“I don’t want to do”: Kemp, “Blessed Damozel of the Concert Stage.”
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Familiar themes: Program for “Dance Recital by Martha Graham with Louis Horst, piano, Klaw Theatre, West 45th Street, Sunday evening, November 28 [1926] at 8:30 o’clock,” Martha Graham Collection, LOC.
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“looked like a Botticelli painting”: Tracy, Goddess, 8.
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“her marvelous”: Robert Bell, “Echoes of the New York Stage.”
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A new offering: “Martha Graham Dances,” New York Times, November 29, 1926, in an unbylined article of one perfunctory paragraph, refers to “an evening of interpretative dances to prevailingly modern music.”
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“fervent lamentation”: Straus, “World Premiere of ‘Baal Shem’ by Bloch in Orchestral Transcription Is Heard”: “Originally the suite, which was written twenty years ago, was composed for violin with piano support.”
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“spontaneity is not”: Kemp, “Blessed Damozel of the Concert Stage.”
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“It is the Jewish soul”: Bloch, Ernest Bloch, 61.
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“Geordie”: Kisselgoff, “Geordie Graham, 88, a Dancer with Denishawn Company, Dies.”
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Another voice: Program for “Guild Theatre, West 42nd Street, Sunday evening, February 27th [1927], Martha Graham,” MGC.
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“as a cow yields”: Ralph T. H. Griffith, trans., Hymn XCII, “Dawn,” in The Rig Veda, 1896, http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv01092.htm.
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“In measure while”: Symons, “Javanese Dancers,” 148.
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“instant conversion”: McPherson, Contributions of Martha Hill, 17–23.
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