Martha Graham Floor Exercises

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.

Martha graham floor exercises.

These are images from the martha graham 1894 1991 technique. 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. The martha graham school offers two intensive five day workshops for instructors who wish to deepen their understanding of the graham technique. Breathings contraction and release spirals deep stretches turns around the back graham plies with contractions and.

The martha graham technique is one of the most thorough and systematic contemporary dance techniques to emerge from the 20th century. 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. When teaching a master class to students who are unfamiliar with graham dakin sometimes adjusts exercises to hone in on one concept at a time. 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. The floor plays an integral part as every movement is taken. 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. 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.

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. Yes we ached and our leg muscles really hurt especially during the pliés that followed. Martha graham is all about performance.