Martha Graham was born May 11, 1894 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania. Her father George Graham was an "alienist", a practitioner of an early form of psychiatry. He was a third generation American of Irish descent. Mother Jane Beers was second generation American of Irish and Scots-Irish descent. Martha was seen as one of the most influential American dancers and choreographers of her time and of the modern day. She passed away April 1, 1991 in New York.
She danced and choreographed for over seventy years. Graham reached many achievements in her lifetime. For example, she danced at the White House, traveled abroad as a cultural ambassador, and received the highest civilian award of the USA: the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She received honors ranging from the Key to the City of Paris to Japan's Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. Beginning in the mid-1910s, she began her studies at the Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts, until the year of 1923. In 1922 Graham performed an Egyptian dance with Lillian Powell in a Hugo Riesenfeld short silent film that attempted to synchroni...
Martha Euphemia Lofton Haynes was the first African American women to earn a PH.D in mathematics. She was the first and only child of William S. Lofton, a dentist and financier, and Lavinia Day Lofton. Euphemia Lofton Haynes was born Martha Euphemia Lofton on September 11, 1890 in Washington D.C. In 1917 she married her childhood sweetheart Dr.Harold Appo Haynes. They knew each other very well, as they grew up in the same neighborhood when they were teenagers. They both attended, and graduated from M St. High school. Her husband graduated from M St high school in 1906, a year earlier than she did. During their marriage they were highly focused on their careers, and didn’t have any children.
Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica, California at 9:00 p.m - a time significant to her because it told her she would always have a bit of catching up to do if she wanted to be on time for dinner (Black 5). As the youngest child and only girl in her family of five, she was her mother’s pride and joy. She had two supportive parents, Gertrude and George, and two older brothers, Jack and George Junior. Gertrude Temple was a stay-at-home mom while George went to work as a bank teller, which played in Shirley’s favor when she needed someone to manage her money later in life (Blashfield 55). Gertrude Temple has been called the first stage mother (Blashfield 22) for good reason. Shirley Temple was acting before she could read, so her mother helped her memorize her lines. Temple’s mother served as her private costume designer, and never failed to make the young star’s performance her best yet, by encouraging her to “Sparkle, Shirley Sparkle!” (David 2).
Billie Holiday was born in Baltimore in 1915 on the 7th of April. Her real name is Eleanora Fagan Gough. Her mother was named Sadie Julia Fagan and had Eleanor as a teenager. Her dad name is Clarence Holiday who became a successful jazz musician as well. When Eleanor was a child she often skipped school, leading her mother to court because of truancy. When holiday was younger she said, "I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was 6 years old." She was sent to a school for troubled girls when she was 9 years old. Before her teen years, Billy and her mother moved to Harlem, N.Y. because her mother was searching for a job. Her mother was arrested after that. Billie married and remarried a couple
In nature things often occur that parallel our way way of being. In this short excerpt, Annie Dillard portrays the amount of determination and stubbornness in weasels, which is much like our own. At the beginning Ms. Dillard reflects on the characteristics that make a weasel wild. She writes that the weasel “…[kills] more bodies than he can eat warm, and often dragging the carcasses home” (Dillard 1). She then moves on to the weasels instinct,and stubbornness, through an anecdote in which a naturalist found himself with a weasel stuck to his arm with one bite, and try as he might her could not “pry the tiny weasel” (Dillard 1) off his arm. The only way he was able to release himself was to “soak him[the weasel] off like a stubborn label”(Dillard
Lotta Crabtree was born in New York in 1847, where she spent her first few years living, before moving to Southern California. With her parents Mary Ann Crabtree a upholsterer, furniture industry, and John Ashworth Crabtree a bookseller. Her Family was attracted by the gold rush and they moved so that they could be closer to it. Her father was the first to leave in search for gold in 1851 and Lotta and her mother moved soon after. In 1852 Lotta and her mother moved to California San Francisco for the race for gold. They weren't the richest family so they moved in with their friends that had been living there.Marry encouraged her daughter Lotta to begin dancing right away and enrolled her in dance classes at a very young age. Lotta Crabtree loved acting and performing for people while she was only a 6 year old girl. The Gold rush attracted lots of people to San francisco and that gave her a chance to perform in front of a huge audience. She danced for them and they threw nuggets and coins at her for her amazing dancing. People were throwing money at her like it was nothing and she was only 6 years old. She earned about 400 dollars per show which is an astonishing amount. Her mother collected her earnings and stored them away.This was only the beginning of Lotta Crabtree’s dancing and theater career.
In 1929, Eleanor made her Broadway debut in Follow Thru. After being in a Broadway show, her stardom kept rising until she made it to Hollywood. In 1935 she appeared in her first movie, George White's 'Scandals of 1935'.From then on, she just got more and more successful. One of her more memorable performances was in ‘Broadway Melody in 1940’ dancing alongside Fred Astaire to “Begin the Beguine’.
St. Denis's professional career began in 1892. In New York City, she worked as a skirt dancer in dime museums and vaudeville houses. "Dime museums featured "leg dancers" (female dancers whose legs were visible under their short skirts) in brief dance routines."# In that type of atmosphere, St. Denis was worked to the bone and forced to perform her routine at least ten times a day. However, in 1898, David Belasco noticed the young Ruth during one of her vaudeville performances. Belasco was a very successful and well known Broadway producer and director. He hired Ruth to perform as a dancer in his company. He was also responsible for giving her the stage name "St. Denis." The popularity of Ruth St. Denis exploded in the United States and Europe as she toured with his production of "Zaza." During her touring, she was introduced to many influential artists, such as Japanese Dancer Sado Yacco and English actress Sarah Bernhardt.
Fitzgerald was born on September 28th 1896 into an upper middle class family living in Saint Paul Minnesota. His mother and father Mollie and Edward Fitzgerald named him after his second cousin three times removed Francis Scott Key the author of the star spangled banner. His mother previously had two children Mary and Louise who unfortunately passed away before he was born from illnesses at the ages of one and three. Mollie Fitzgerald became pregnant once more after that but lost the baby an hour after birth. However in 1901 Scott’s Sister Annabel was born completing the family.
Dorothy Rothschild Parker was born on August 22, 1893, in Long Branch, New Jersey. She was the youngest child of three siblings. Her mother Eliza Annie Rothschild was a Scottish descent, and her father was German Jewish descent. Her mother was devout to Catholicism. Her mother (Elizabeth Jane Barrett) was a survivor from the Titanic; she boarded the Titanic as first class passenger. Her mother died in July 1898, after her father remarried to Eleanor Frances Lewis. Dorothy was not close with her stepmother. She an had unhappy childhood, and she was lonely. She later accused her father of being physically abusive. In You Might as Well Live: The Life and Times of Dorothy Parker she shows her father as being a monster. Dorothy’s stepmother was into Roman Catholicism, and Dorothy was sent to a boarding school run by nuns. Dorothy Parker was one of most accomplished feminist in her time and a successful literary writer in history. Dorothy attempted suicide and struggled with alcoholism, and spent some of her years to overcome it. Dorothy Rothschild was known in her time the most significant woman for writing books, poem, and short fictions.
The term Renaissance Man or Renaissance Individual refers to a person that is skilled in many talents and/or has extensive knowledge. Through the centuries, there have been many people who have fit this description. People like Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein and Galileo Galilei.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on September 24, 1897 in St. Paul, Minnesota. His father, Edward Fitzgerald was a distinguished lawyer, Fitzgerald’s mother, Mary McQuillan, was left with the inheritance of a million-dollar grocery business after her parents’ death (Philips, 1).
Overall, a legendary woman of many traits had known for her many remarkable achievements throughout her life. Changed and impressed the world for over fifty years with her fabulous work choreographed over ninety pieces. Exposed the world to the awareness of different fusions of cultures, mainly African culture though her amazingchoreographies. Revolutionized modern dance by recreating a whole new dance form. Katherine brought innovation to the world of dance. Her love for the art of dance was really shown by her ideals and terrific ways of creating. Katherine Believe that dance was much more dance just movements, one must know that roots of those movements to truly express the
The fine art of modern dance is like many other fields in that it is based on the actions and deeds of those who were pioneers in the field. These pioneers helped to mold modern dance into what it is today. Of the many people who are partially responsible for this accomplishment is Isadora Duncan. Duncan, often referred to as the “mother of modern dance,” inspired many other dancers to the extent that the art of dance would not be the same today without her many contributions.
The Life and Works of Annie Leibovitz Annie Leibovitz is one of the best portrait photographers in this modern age. Her works focus on varied subjects but hover more among celebrity portraits. Apart from these, her photographs depict visual stories that affect the audience's emotions. The diversity and life of her photographs create visual artistic realms that touch the soul. Biography:
Barbra Joan Streisand was born on April 24, 1942 in Brooklyn, NYC, NY to Diana and Emanuel Streisand. Growing up, both of her parents worked in schools, her father a teacher, and her mom a secretary. Her father died when she was around 15 months old due to a complications after having an epileptic seizure. While Barbra was away at camp in the late 1940s, her mother remarried a used car salesman named Louis Kind, and Streisand was completely unaware that her mother was married - and pregnant. Her half sister, named Rosalind, was born in 1952.