Analysing Martha Graham’s ‘Cave of the Heart’
I have been looking at Martha Graham’s piece “Cave of the Heart”, unlike her performance ‘Diversion of Angels’ this piece has as story like most of Graham’s work. The performance is based on a scientific study of the power of love and deep passions human beings are capable of having, but also around the Myth of Medea which is one of many Greek tragedies, the story tells a sorcerer who is in love and waiting for attention from and an adventurer named Jason who has recently returned from battle. However, instead of giving Medea (the sorcerer) the affection she desires, Jason betrays her for the Princess of Corinth. The Sorcerer represents the power of love and is described by Graham as a serpent who is protecting the heart and will strike at any danger to guard the heart, but also wants to seek revenge against anyone that betrays or disobeys it. (Sherwood, 2020)
The relationship between the music and the movement creates a dramatic impact on each other as the music contains a lot of tension and hesitation within it, therefore this has an effect on the movement as the Sorcerer, Medea uses a lot of sharp but subtle actions. It came across to me as though she was feeling defeated by the betrayal but then slowly turns to plotting revenge and forms anger towards Jason and the Princess. Graham seems to use repetition usually going backward and forwards which could possibly portray Medea’s frustration building up, as the music seemed to reflect Medea’s feelings from her movements.
The performance was said to have attracted an older audience who wanted to see the
modern dance classics of Graham’s work, where Martha Graham used her dancers to tell the myth of Medea (Morgan, 2014).In this piece there was four dancers on stage in the beginning where the Sorcerer was behind a tree like structure which also came across to me as the lungs where Medea was the heart hiding between the lungs, then there was a dancer lying on the floor for the whole of the performance and then there was the duet at the start between the adventurer Jason and the Princess which they both run off stage mid way through the piece. I think Graham used a minimal amount of dancers because she wanted the focus to be on the characters shown on stage so the audience could discover the individual emotions coming across. (Dunning, 2020)
In comparison between my group piece and Graham’s choreography I think there was a difference in a way that there are individual characters who enter and leave the stage in Graham’s piece, where as in my group performance we have kept all performers on the stage as it’s a piece about the mind and the different aspects within our emotions who are all part of one team who have to work together to function. However, a similarity in my group’s piece and Graham’s work is that we both decided that the main point and aim is to get the emotions across to the audience, as in my performance the group and I each have our own emotions where we may do the same movements but we may make them fit to our characters. For example, my expression is fear therefore I may use a scarred and frightened expression on my face for some parts of the dance. And in Martha Graham’s piece they use their emotions in the way the character is supposed to feel whilst portraying it through their movement and face.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CoHVzWX1xG0
(Opéra national de Paris, 2018)
Bibliography :
Opéra national de Paris, 2018. Cave Of The Heart- Martha Graham Company. [image] Available at: [Accessed 28 November 2020].
Sherwood, M., 2020. Cave Of The Heart (1946). [online] Martha Graham Dance Company. Available at: [Accessed 28 November 2020].
Morgan, C., 2014. Martha Graham Dance Company: Cave Of The Heart, Lamentation Variations, Suite From Appalachian Spring, Echo - Criticaldance. [online] CriticalDance. Available at: [Accessed 28 November 2020].
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