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Rebellion is a part of human nature. It is something that everyone goes through at some point in their life. Very few people can say that their rebellion caused a revolution.

There are those in society that have the dream and vision to pursue a cause with single-minded determination. When those people achieve their goal it is often with a great deal of acclaim and applause for their innovative thinking, but that is rarely the reason that they do it. They are those who have passion and believe in their ideas without self-doubt or thoughts of fame and fortune.

Graham lived in New York during the 1930’s and witnessed and lived through the crushing poverty that existed there during this time. While there was economic instability everywhere in the world, New York City was hit especially hard with it’s population of unskilled immigrant workers. Martha Graham used the social aspect and pain that she witnessed as an inspiration for her dance choreography.

Martha Graham lived in New York City during the 1930’s. As you can imagine devastating poverty and hopelessness surrounded her. It was her thought that the stage productions that were on Broadway were nothing more than a way for some in society to escape the reality of the stark conditions of their city. Instead of creating more of the same, Graham incorporated the turmoil and hopelessness into the dances that she created.

One of her dance pieces has been noted for its stark ability to show the anguish of poverty with the movements of the dance. The piece is called “Steps in the Streets” which is actually a small part of a larger work. The dance is performed by twelve women who are all dressed in black dresses.

The stage is a black box with the twelve women dancing a dance that can only be described as agony set to motion. The undulations of the women as they move across the stage are a depiction of the collective downward spiral of so many that was living in society during that time. It was a dance that very few people could classify or even understand.

There were of course critics of Grahams work mostly because it was so misunderstood. Because her dance was so different than anything else that existed it took many years before it could be appreciated. Today, almost twenty years after Martha Graham died, we see dance as an art form that can be an expression that uses the body to communicate.

Martha Graham could be classified as a trailblazer because of her ability to do something that hadn’t been attempted before her. She was able to take dance and turn it into a social and political statement of the conditions of her world as she saw it. Now, people understand that the dance can be a political statement or any other expression that we wish it to be.

Martha Graham was a woman who was unafraid to perform her art the way that she felt it should be performed and not what was expected from the audience. She was a pioneer who never cared what the critics thought of her work, but performed it because she was passionate about her art. This is the true meaning of artistic integrity.

Because of the work of Martha Graham we can see dance as an art instead of a pleasant diversion from the harsh realities of real life. Her stand was daring and brave for confronting the people of her generation with the reality of many people’s existence. There was no fantasy or dream in her performances, but only the truth as she saw it.