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

Of all the falls, the back fall is probably the most difficult, technically. The dancer
uses the contraction to stabilize her weight, then hinges backwards by bending her knees.
The center of weight, the pelvis, must remain over the heels as the torso gradually
assumes a position parallel to the floor. The distribution of the body's weight is equalized
by the thrust of the thighs forward and the plunge of the torso backwards. Preparation for
this fall begins with the exercise on six in the floorwork, specifically designed to
strengthen the thighs in order to support the torso as it is thrust backward. A series of
standing exercises, both at the barre, and in the center, continue this process.
The Theater
Graham's classroom exercises developed historically as her choreographic
explorations demanded new techniques from the dancers. In the class, these exercises
became codified and divorced from the dramatic meaning within the dance. They are
techniques, and while there is an inherent drama in the sequences, it is the choreographic
context that constructs meaning within any dance. Graham's 1947 Night Journey uses
several of the classic Graham falls, each taking its dramatic meaning from the dancer's
relationship to other characters in the work, the sequence of events within the dance, and
the overall dramatic and aesthetic considerations of the dance. 4
Night Journey is Martha Graham's retelling of the Oedipus myth from the
perspective of Jocasta, the Queen. Unconcerned with linear time, Graham begins her
dance at the instant of Jocasta's suicide, when the blind seer Tiraesius forces her to
confront and relive the horror of her incestuous relationship with her son Oedipus.
Graham uses the split fall to signal choreographically Jocasta's descent into her own past.
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