Martha Graham was an American choreographer, dancer, and teacher, she was the
             major most influential figure in American modern dance for more than fifty years.
             Graham was born on May 11, 1893, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1908 Graham moved
             to Santa Barbara, California. Then in 1916 she began studying under Ruth St. Denis and
             Ted Shawn in the Denishawn school and company. During the next several years in the
             company Graham evolved from a student, to a teacher, to one of the company's best
             After two years of dancing in Broadway productions, Martha Graham was the
             director of the dance department at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New
             York, and began creating dances of her own. Graham then opened her own studio in
             New York City in 1927, while working with the musician and composer Louis Horst. In
             order to raise funds for her new studio Graham danced at the opening of Radio City
             Music Hall, modeled furs and gave classes in which she taught actors such as Bette Davis
             and Richard Boone how to move. In 1926 Graham gave her first recital.
             In Graham's early work she rejected the style taught to her by the Denishawn
             productions. Grahams costumes, staging and angular movements caused some
             bewilderment and antagonism, eventhough she attracted so much positive attention and
             recognition. Some people often called her dances exotic. Her expressive style developed
             and Graham became one of the leading figures in contemporary dance.
             Graham trained young dancers for her company, she developed a technique in
             American modern dance that included the contraction and release of different parts of the
             body. The contraction was a principal of tension and relaxation and used a method of
             breathing and impulse control. Grahams dances and dancers often looked hard and
             angular which most critics would accuse her and her company of dancing in an ugly way.
             ...