Martha Graham Floor Exercises

Evolved over 80 years of consistent practice and teaching at the martha graham center in new york city and at dance centers arts high schools and college and university dance departments globally the floor work grounds mobilizes and strengthens the body s core.

Martha graham floor exercises. A series of short films demonstrating the physical techniques and dance moves developed by legendary american choreographer and dancer martha graham beautifully illustrated by young dancers from. Breathings contraction and release spirals deep stretches turns around the back graham plies with contractions and. The deepest contraction needs the floor to coil into from the beginning the quality of your work will be affected by the working relationship you establish with the floor. Many of the exercises in the graham syllabus require the dancer to fall powerfully into the floor and these movements are seen repeatedly throughout the graham repertory.

Two levels of programming are designed for teachers who are new to graham level i november 2 6 as well as veteran graham instructors level ii november 9 13. An introduction to floorwork in a martha graham technique class 1. However the notions that are most commonly practiced in graham s floor work are the bounces breathings turns around the back and spirals. Yes we ached and our leg muscles really hurt especially during the pliés that followed.

Straight away you can tell that we weren t pushing ourselves during the floor exercises at the beginning as we managed to do all 7 exercises without feeling exhausted. Here s a list of the basic vocabulary of the martha graham s dance technique. Martha graham is all about performance. The floor plays an integral part as every movement is taken.

While graham s is a codified technique with a set series of seated floor exercises standing exercises and across the floor sequences there are various ways of presenting material from the syllabus. The martha graham technique is one of the most thorough and systematic contemporary dance techniques to emerge from the 20th century. The martha graham school offers two intensive five day workshops for instructors who wish to deepen their understanding of the graham technique.