Martha Graham

I think you people would find it interesting to know that today is Martha Graham's 117th birthday! You probably already saw the google animation, but I thought you might want to know some more about her:

Martha Graham was a modern dancer and choreographer, and if you've never heard of her--her impact on dance is comparatively the same as Picasso's on the visual arts. She danced and taught people to dance for over 70 years. She accomplished things such as being the first dancer ever to perform at the White House, and winning the highest possible USA civilian award--the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Among her other awards she also received the Key to the City of Paris, and the Japanese Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. In 1936, she accomplished her most famed production, "Chronicle." She was also famous for quotations people have taken from her, such as this one, which she said to Agnes de Mille after her musical Oklahoma! came out, 'There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."

She was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in 1894 and died when she was 96 in 1991, saying: "I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable."

I'm not actually a dancer or anything but I thought her story was very interesting!

-Iris