“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.” With this quote Martha Graham argues that the body says what words cannot say. Martha Graham was an important American modern dance dancer, teacher, and choreographer in American history. Graham was a person who never thought he was “different” from anyone else, but he certainly was. Graham used the psychological concepts of Freud and Jung in his dances. Graham also sought to give “visible substance to felt things,” a phrase that has become a central metaphor in his art form. Among many things Graham was also a great supporter of expressionism, an art form in which an artist seeks to express in his work an emotional experience rather than impressions of the outside world, and his revolutionary vision and artistic mastery have had a profound and lasting impact. on American art and culture. Martha Graham was born on May 11, 1894 in Alleghany County, Pennsylvania and died tragically on April 1, 1994 at her home of cardiac arrest after being treated for pneumonia for two months. Graham was one of three daughters of a physician, her father, Dr. George Graham, who was particularly interested in the bodily expression of human behavior. His father's profession is what influenced the psychological emphasis of reflection and light on an event (Freud) and the timing of dreams, or important events receiving more time than real events (Jung), in his dances. In 1909, Graham's family settled in Santa Barbara, California, where he became acquainted with Eastern art, influences that would be evident in his choreography throughout his career. In 1911, at age 17, Graham attended a Los Angeles concert for Ruth St. Denis, whose exotic dancing inspired Graham to imagine a dance career with... means of paper... the body as the protagonist . relaxed muscle. At first the audience thought that Graham's tapping, contracting and releasing movements were ugly and unpleasant because this method gave Graham's dancers an angular appearance that was very unfamiliar to audiences accustomed to the fluid and lyrical body movements of Isadora Duncan and Ruth St. Denis. Over the course of Graham's career, which spanned well over fifty years, he created over 180 works ranging from solos to large-scale works. Soon after audiences and critics became accustomed to Graham's innovative movement style, Graham developed a following among serious dance patrons, scholars, and critics. Graham's famous solo, “Lamentation,” was a portrait of a grieving woman sitting alone on a bench and moving to Kodaly's anguished piano score. In this dance Graham simply wears a giant tube-shaped cloth, which represents the stretching of his own skin.