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Female Power and Gender Transcendence in the Work of Martha Graham and Mary Wigman

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2013

Catherine Cabeen
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Abstract

This paper contrasts the iconic embodiments of empowered femininity characteristic of Martha Graham's choreographic work and the gender ambiguity found in Mary Wigman's early solos. These modern dance pioneers both emancipated the female body from dominant Western culture's insistence on binary gender definitions. However, their differing approaches to how a liberated female body looks, moves, and dresses provides an opportunity to examine modern dance as a forum for diverse shifts in gender representation. This research draws on my personal experience dancing with the Martha Graham company and historic research investigating Wigman's solo concerts in Germany from 1917 to 1919. This paper makes the claim that modern dance, as a conscious fusion of body and mind, can embrace the fluid complexity of personal identity and encourage both conceptual and embodied transcendence of hegemonic male/female paradigms.

Type
Research Article
Information
Congress on Research in Dance Conference Proceedings , Volume 40 , supplement S1: Dance Studies and Global Feminisms , 2008 , pp. 28 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2008

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