Martha Graham on preparation and discipline

The Martha Graham Technique, explained

It's considered the first codified modern dance technique and a foundational pillar of American dance. In this 1975 instructional film, its namesake explains how the Graham Technique works. "As you can see," she notes, "the body is capable of almost endless variations and combinations once it is trained."

Martha Graham's revolutionary approach to choreography

The dancer and choreographer created a uniquely American form of ballet that brought together stories from the country's history, abstract expressionism, modern psychological ideas, and collaborations with other major artists.

A visual biography of Martha Graham

This history of the modern dancer's life uses archival photos and videos to illustrate how Graham's childhood, especially her upbringing by a psychiatrist and her early dance performance, set the stage for her career.

Exploring Martha Graham's 'love of the body'

The innovative choreographer encouraged her dancers to tune into their bodies' natural movements. According to Dr. Kimerer L. LaMothe, author of "What the Body Knows," that kind of mindfulness made them better able to communicate a piece's symbolic meaning.

How Martha Graham challenged ballet's rigidity

Ballet prized lightness, but Graham's choreography emphasized weight. This essay explores how her work broke from European influences to embrace American idioms, much as her American contemporaries in jazz and literature did.

A step-by-step guide to the Martha Graham Technique

This BBC explainer walks you through Martha Graham's famous approach to dance, offering you six moves you can work into your exercise regiment—or Graham-inspired routine.

Listen to an interview with Martha Graham from 1974

This interview, from the "Bernard Gabriel Views the Music Scene" program, features a candid conversation in which Graham discusses how her career did not take off until her 30s and how she learned to ignore criticism.

Watch Martha Graham perform 'Heretic'

The 1929 piece features Graham in white, expressively dancing on her own, flanked by 12 dancers in black who follow a more rigid choreography. Some critics have argued the piece was an allegory for Graham's rebellion against ballet's strict traditions.

Listen to the last-known interview with Martha Graham

Reporter Michael Small interviewed the influential choreographer and dancer in 1989 for People magazine, two years before she died, and features the 95-year-old looking back on her life and career. If you want to skip ahead to the raw audio, jump to 26:40.

Martha Graham's philosophy of creativity

The influential choreographer and dancer once said that creative people will never be satisfied with their work. Instead, "There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."

How Martha Graham's 'Rite of Spring' imposed order on chaos

Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" is famously chaotic, making it an odd choice for Graham's highly precise style. Her 1984 choreography for it, however, redefined how people saw the ballet's score. Graham's version is still performed today; below is an excerpt from a 2018 performance by the Paris Opera.

How the Martha Graham Company experiments with technology

The dance company was the first major group to livestream rehearsals and has collaborated with Google on a version of Graham's "Lamentation" that superimposes past performances on the present-day dancer.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Unpacking 'Night Journey,' Martha Graham's take on a Greek myth

The dance piece was inspired by the story of Oedipus, as well as by more contemporary psychoanalytic theories from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. This JSTOR article explores how Graham's show merged those texts with her singular approach to movement to explore gender and identity.

Watch Helen Keller visit Martha Graham's studio

The two women were friends, and Keller eventually visited Graham's studio while her company was rehearsing. In this footage of that encounter, Graham shows Keller the shape of her choreography.

Counting calories with a ballerina

Ballet dancer Theresa Farrell meticulously manages her diet to achieve her performance weight goal for the American Contemporary Ballet season in Los Angeles. She tracks calories, relies on pre-packaged meals, and calculates every intake. This regimen allows her to stay focused on training and rigorous dance routines, ensuring she's prepared physically for performances. Watch a day in the life here.

Marina Abramović didn’t use the bathroom during her MoMA show

In preparation for sitting in one place for hours on end, Abramović placed a hole in her chair for urinating. She also prepared for the experience with a strict diet and hydration regimen.

Ashrita Furman, owner of over 600 world records

What does it take to break so many world records? Hardcore spiritual discipline, at least according to Ashrita Furman, who was trained by an ascetic teacher to do challenging things. Read up on his accomplishments in this photo essay.

Grit: passion combined with perseverance over an extended time

Roughly defined as a balance of perseverance and passion, Angela Duckworth defines this combination as an essential component of reaching long-term goals. Not merely about talent or luck, Duckworth argues the personality trait enables individuals to maintain their commitment to significant objectives over extended periods, despite facing challenges and setbacks.

Performance art differs from other performances, like dance and theater

While performance art is a very flexible genre, it is defined by several core elements: time, space, the body, and the relationship between the artist and the audience. These elements may be manipulated in infinite ways to convey the artist’s message, such as how endurance performances challenge the limits of the body over long periods of time.

Jazz improvisation isn't entirely spontaneous

While jazz musicians are known for their improvisational skills, they rely on years of training and a complex understanding of compositions to inform their improvised solos, using a song's structure and chords to make their in-the-moment choices.

'Practice, which some regard as a chore, should be approached as just about the most pleasant recreation ever devised.'

- Legendary athlete Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (1911-1956)

Grandmaster Flash’s DJing masterclass

For some people, DJing is nothing more than pressing play on a few songs, but for hip-hop DJs, it’s a precise art form that requires real skill. Need proof? Watch this 1983 tutorial from Grandmaster Flash, one of the genre’s pioneering DJs, as he walks you through beatmatching and mixing on his spartan set-up of two turntables and a basic mixer.

'I always like to fake bravery. But I really think that solidified me being brave, speaking up for myself and just putting myself first.'

- Seven-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles (1997-present)

Making Champagne from start to finish

This video from wine educator Amelia Singer covers everything from grape to glass. She’ll walk you through pressing the fruit, fermentation, aging, disgorgement, and, of course, drinking.

Sculpting the unrivalled stone, marble

Marble is considered the chief material for sculpture due to its intrinsic beauty, stemming from its white translucence which makes the light appear to come from the stone. In this video, sculptor Simon Smith recreates Donatello's 15th-century Prato Pulpit panel which still hangs on the outside of a church. Watch as he explains the painstaking process and reveals the beautiful final output.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Watch the cumbersome, but necessary, precautions healthcare workers must take to care for and protect themselves while caring for Ebola patients.

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

The word 'jazz' evolved from 'jasm,' 19th-century American slang for 'energy'

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

Astronauts have repaired genetic damage in space using CRISPR—a molecular tool that can make precise changes to DNA and is used in single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.