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1 When Your Heart Falls: The Drama of Descent in Martha Graham's ...

1 When Your Heart Falls: The Drama of Descent in Martha Graham's ...

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<strong>in</strong> fall<strong>in</strong>g the dancer surrendered herself <strong>in</strong>to the darkness, <strong>in</strong>to the unknown. Seem<strong>in</strong>gly<br />

contradictory, these explanations have an <strong>in</strong>ner consistency -- impulses <strong>of</strong> the heart are<br />

<strong>of</strong>ten dark and s<strong>in</strong>ister <strong>in</strong> Graham choreography.<br />

Of the many images presented dur<strong>in</strong>g the 1950s and 1960s, when I was a student,<br />

was the idea that the floor rises to meet the descend<strong>in</strong>g dancer. "Let the floor come up to<br />

you." For example, <strong>in</strong> the split fall the dancer beg<strong>in</strong>s <strong>in</strong> a stand<strong>in</strong>g position. <strong>The</strong> power <strong>of</strong><br />

the contraction lifts the dancer's weight, allow<strong>in</strong>g one leg to slide forward, while the body<br />

descends between both legs, the torso gradually becom<strong>in</strong>g parallel to the floor. <strong>The</strong> body<br />

f<strong>in</strong>ds a triangular base <strong>of</strong> support as it approaches the ground; at the completion <strong>of</strong> the fall<br />

the dancer's legs are <strong>in</strong> a wide fourth position on the floor, the torso mak<strong>in</strong>g contact with<br />

the ground. <strong>The</strong> image <strong>of</strong> the floor ris<strong>in</strong>g -- <strong>in</strong> contrast to the body descend<strong>in</strong>g -- is<br />

accomplished through the act <strong>of</strong> suspension; <strong>in</strong> the descent the body hangs, not upon any<br />

external object, but through its own virtual forces. <strong>The</strong> floor <strong>in</strong>deed rushes up to meet the<br />

dancer, who ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong>s a suspended upward thrust until the f<strong>in</strong>al moment.<br />

Images that relate to the forward fall beg<strong>in</strong> with exercises on the floor where the<br />

student is directed to imag<strong>in</strong>e the space around herself as an abyss, a chasm, an unknown<br />

field over which her torso may be suspended. Stand<strong>in</strong>g exercises <strong>in</strong> which the torso is<br />

suspended <strong>in</strong> positions parallel to the floor build upon this. A variation <strong>of</strong> the forward fall<br />

beg<strong>in</strong>s from an arabesque. Rather than work for the stability <strong>of</strong> the ballet penchee, the<br />

dancer here deliberately moves <strong>of</strong>f the stand<strong>in</strong>g leg so that the weight is thrust forward,<br />

the body put at risk while outstretched arms reach across an imag<strong>in</strong>ary divide, before<br />

f<strong>in</strong>ally mak<strong>in</strong>g contact with the ground, as if at the other side <strong>of</strong> an enormous chasm.<br />

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