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By the 1930’s in America, “Graham had developed a succinct dance vocabulary within her technique that spoke to more taboo forms of movement and emotional expression” (Mapes, 2012). For example, the introduction of Graham’s stylized breathing concept, which she dubbed ‘contraction and release’, not only formed the basis of her unique dance terminology, but also her ‘weighted’ dance style. As a result, “a Graham contraction is a movement that originates from deep within the pelvic muscles, that in amalgamation with the abdominal muscles, aims to pull the spine and torso into a grounded, concave arch” (Gutelius, 2014). Whilst the ‘release’ of this movement denotes returning to a linear torso, the force of a Graham contraction ensures that dancers use weight and effort as a dramatic tool to move their body through space.
To cross even further artistic boundaries, as well as incorporate a sense of volatility within her technique, Graham added the terms ‘spiral’ and ‘floorwork’ in her dance glossary. Whilst Mécène describes the spiral as the “twisting of the torso around the spine” (Mécène, 2012, p. 23), floorwork on the contrary aims to manipulate the body’s center of gravity. This exploitation therefore allows dancers to “not only have a heightened sense of awareness of being grounded on the floor” (Legg, 2006, p. 112), but also enables the body to “appear to be pushing through a heavy mass, much like the pressure confronted when walking through water” (Rado, 1997). Thus, instead of producing suave transitions between movements, as in classical ballet, exertion and conflictual dynamics were now blatantly discernible in Graham’s technique.
A third fundamental term in Graham’s technique is her signature cupped hand position, which “has two versions – the formal cup, whereby the fingers are straight, with the thumb bent in, and the soft cup in which the fingertips are splayed with the energy coming from the heel of the hand” (Theys, 2016, p. 88). Collectively, these hand positions are used as a stylistic component in Graham’s choreography to augment her larger-than-life characters; but is also “part of her rebellion…of creating movement that other people simply weren’t doing” (Macel, 2009).
Taking these dance techniques into account, in 1939, Merce Cunningham danced as a soloist for six years at the Martha Graham Dance Company. Inspired by Graham, he launched his own dance company to “begin pursing movement that was devoid as possible of emotional implications” (Cooperland, 2004 p. 3), consequently leading him to develop ‘choreography by chance’. This process enabled Cunningham to construct dances that opposed the traditional ways of storytelling in dance, whilst at the same time also imitated Graham’s intense physicality. Similarly, in 1955, Paul Taylor danced as a soloist at the Martha Graham Dance Company, whereby he was heavily inspired by Graham’s ‘psychoanalytical’ notion on dance. This encouraged Taylor to establish his own dance company, as well as begin choreographing pieces that “relied upon blending everyday natural gestures with the expressionistic dance techniques he was taught at Graham’s Dance Company” (Woodruff, 2018). As such, many of his well-recognized performances such as ‘Three Epitaphs’ (1956), ‘Aureole’ (1962) and ‘Speaking in Tongues’ (1988), all illuminate love, piety, morality, sexuality, feminism, conflict and religion – themes which he copied from Graham, further underlining her impact on both Cunningham’s and Taylor’s choreographic work.
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