India's Graham: Martha Graham's Impact on Indian Modern Dance

Abstract

I conducted semi-structured open-ended Zoom interviews with seven Indian dancers who studied with Martha Graham or her company between 1964 and 2009. Many of these dancers connected with Indian concepts and subject matter for the first time or in a new way through Graham, a phenomenon that would prove controversial in artistic milieus that pressured artists to serve cultural authenticity or embody a degree of ‘Indian-ness.’ Sparking questions and inspiring new approaches, Graham's impact on Indian modern dance cannot be ignored. This paper investigates the new direction(s) brought to Indian dance during and after the post-colonial period. The Indian Graham dancers profiled herein also deserve to be acknowledged in dance scholarship for their contribution not only to new directions within Indian dance, but also to cross-cultural collaborations such as 2020's Movement Migration, which continue to strengthen Indo-American relations via kinaesthetics.