Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer and choreographer. Her style, the Graham
technique, reshaped American dance and is still taught worldwide.
Graham danced and taught for over seventy years. She was the first dancer to perform at the White House, travel abroad
as a cultural ambassador, and receive the highest civilian award of the US: the Presidential Medal of Freedom with
Distinction. In her lifetime she received honors ranging from the Key to the City of Paris to Japan's Imperial Order of
the Precious Crown. She said, in the 1994 documentary The Dancer Revealed, "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.
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