Teacher's wisdom: former Martha Graham dancer Marni Thomas, co-founder of the dance department at the University of California at Berkeley, spoke to writer Ann Murphy at the university's dance studios

Dance Magazine, May, 2004 by Marni Thomas

IS THERE A PARTICULAR BODY TYPE OR KIND OF DANCER REST SUITED TO GRAHAM WORK? NO, I don't think so. Martha really felt every spiral had to be experienced by how far that particular body could turn. Every contraction had to do with the length of your body compared to the length of your thigh, or how stretched your spine was. So, for her, the contraction was not one shape that looked like a C. It was: This person's body goes this way; this person's body twists that far; this person's body tilts to this degree. A spiral is important but only if it looks like you are constantly turning, not like you've squished yourself to the edge. The same thing is true for the contraction, which people seem to think is a troll all hunched up. It's not. It's based on mobility.

DO MEN STILL COMPLAIN ABOUT THE FLOOR WORK? Definitely, but so do women. Everyone complains about the floor! One reason is that when you begin Graham after the body is adult, it's hard to feel your flexibility. Another reason is that certain other techniques use the body in a way that makes the muscularly-engaged Graham world feel constricting. Also, there's a sense that it is done by rote. People think mistakenly that "it" is important rather than "I'm important because I know how to use my body in these ways." The critical element in teaching the technique is allowing each person to come to terms with her own limitations, to challenge her, but to also fill her with confidence about how she can move with strength and flexibility.

CAN YOU TELL ME HOW YOU TEACH A GRAHAM CONTRACTION? For Martha, a contraction is based on human reactions--a scream, a laugh, a punch in the middle of the stomach. It came from the idea of exhaling and inhaling, then transferring the breath from the lung to the pelvis. The first thing you teach with a contraction is a very natural exhale, showing that the body slightly curves. Then you use the muscles to create that round shape rather than let the body just be lax. That's her lyric contraction. The percussive contraction is based on the percussive exhalation. The image is of being hit in the pit of the stomach, or screaming in pain, or with laughter. Laughing is something people seem to forget with Graham. The extreme pressure makes the head fly back to let air out.

WHAT ROLE DO THE ARMS PLAY? The arms are like the echo from the center. In old comic books you would see the effects of a character's shout. There would be lines coining out from all around the head and the mouth that then showed you the shout. Similarly, in a Graham contraction the arms fling out from the body to make the "shout" front the core visible. The legs often do the same. They never lead. Almost always in Graham the torso leads while the arms and legs and head become extensions of what the spine is telling you not the face. The core of Graham work is not what the face shows you, it's how the total picture of the physical relationship--arms and legs and head--relates to what the body is already saying.

WHAT ROLE DID IMAGERY PLAY IN GRAHAM'S TEACHING? Graham constantly referred to images. In exercises in which she used a lyric contraction sitting on the floor, for example, she would use an image like: "You are a diviner and you try to seek the truth and you have to pull in to yourself. /Wood contracts.] Then you have to seek it further and you can't find the answer [she contracts further]. And finally when you find the answer you declare it to the whole world [she explosively releases]." Her images were based on dramatic development and personal sensation.

WHAT IF SOMEONE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND THE IMAGE SHE WAS USING? She would usually try something very shocking. She often created sexual connotations to make someone feel totally undone. If a dancer was walking across the floor in an extremely dull and automaton-like way, she would say, "When you walk across the floor I can tell whether you had a good night or whether you had nothing at all." Everybody would gasp because in those days that was shocking. People felt that she had an eye into the center of them. She tried to bring the person into consciousness. That's unusual. Often in Graham now you're taught shapes, and people learn by rote based on the definition of all those shapes. For Martha, though, they weren't shapes; they were actions.

WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF LIVE MUSIC FOR GRAHAM CLASS? If you have a live musician, you can teach a fall on eight counts, then four, then two, then one count. The pianist is able to bring the momentum with you. It makes all the difference in the world. I call it my umbilicus in a class. It is the way Martha worked because her first experience was with a pianist, Louis Horst, who was her mentor/lover. She respected the live exchange between musician and dancer, and I also feel that very strongly.

WHAT IT IS ABOUT GRAHAM TECHNIQUE THAT IS AND WAS USEFUL FOR ACTORS? Martha used to say "The body doesn't lie." If you're really happy, you don't have a caved-in chest. If you're sad, you're not expanded. Martha was deeply involved in what emotional changes caused to happen in the body. If I turn my back, is it because I'm angry? Is it because I'm sad? Is it because I'm very pleased with myself? Is it because I'm noble? All those different ways of hinting your back connote meaning.