Active Years: 1894-1991

Position: American dancer and choreographer, founder of  modern dance

Career Highlights: The 1940s were Graham’s most productive years. She created Letter to the World(1940), based on the life of Emily Dickinson, Deaths and Entrances (1943), Dark Meadow (1946), and Cave of the Heart(1946). She is best known for Appalachian Spring, created in 1944, which premiered at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

Career Totals: Graham choreographed more than 170 dances from 1926 until her death.

Scouting Report: Graham moved to California at 14 where her father was a physician who treated mental cases. He diagnosed all of his patients based on the way they moved. “The body never lies,” he said, and this became Graham’s motto as well. She began studying with Denishawn in 1916 after her father’s death (he did not approve of a theater career). But in 1923, she left the company and moved to New York City. Graham had her first concert in 1926. The company remained all female until the late 1930s when Erick Hawkins, who Graham later married, and Merce Cunningham joined. Graham created a technique centered around breathing, focusing on contraction and release. Her dances were inspired by literature, mythology, and her own personal experiences. She once said each of her dances was “a graph of the heart.”

Teammates and Contemporaries: Many of Graham’s own dancers like Hawkins and Cunningham went on to choreograph their own works. In 1934, she began having music specifically created for her works and she collaborated with Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and Paul Hindemith. The sets and props of sculptor Isamu Noguchi became a featured part of her dances.

Fun Fact: Graham’s first job in New York City was dancing in a Broadway revue called Greenwich Village Follies– performing what she called “sexy little numbers.”