\n<\/p>\n
Jowitt excels at describing, minutely, the work \u2014 restoring to readers the novelty of Graham\u2019s now-ingrained concepts; her conviction and distinct style. Of \u201cCelebration,\u201d a 1934 piece for 14 women, she writes: \u201cWearing identical dresses in deep blue and black, they jumped and jumped and jumped and jumped (a hundred times, one of them was sure), with only a brief seated section to power them up again.\u201d <\/p>\n
The choreographer\u2019s collaborations were top-notch: the sculptor Isamu Noguchi; the composer Samuel Barber; and the designer Halston. Learning how she drew inspiration from so many disparate cultures (Greek, Indigenous, biblical) \u2014 with occasional gross insensitivity \u2014 one begins to realize that the term \u201cmodern dance,\u201d like \u201cclassical music,\u201d is if not a misnomer, then a massive oversimplification.<\/p>\n
Critics could be \u201cuncomprehending and denunciatory\u201d; the public, \u201cbaffled but moved in some way they do not understand.\u201d But Graham early on achieved one of the clearest marks of success: She was parodied. (By Fanny Brice, no less. And who can forget Robin Williams\u2019s rapid-fire tour of American dance forms<\/a> in \u201cThe Birdcage\u201d?) Should she have gotten a piece of the Pulitzer that the composer Aaron Copland picked up for their ballet, \u201cAppalachian Spring<\/a>\u201d? You bet your bottom Barbie<\/a>.<\/p>\n About the messy life between performances, Jowitt is comparatively mild. Graham, as has been written about plenty, had relationships with much younger men that could cloud her staunch professionalism. Her alcoholism tiptoes into these pages on little cat feet (by the way, Graham\u2019s own were tiny: size 5B), beginning with a bout of drinking after Horst died in 1964; her infamous temper is minimized, characterized as \u201ccloudbursts\u201d and \u201cpurgative.\u201d You will not here find Graham boogieing at Studio 54<\/a> or pinching and slapping<\/a> teenage dance students. Nor, on the other hand, read about the time Helen Keller visited the studio<\/a>.<\/p>\n A definitive biography of this woman who lived until 96 and spoke in epigrams, undulations and billowing fabric might be impossible to contain between one set of covers, but \u201cErrand Into the Maze\u201d is a distinguished biography: its description rich, its author\u2019s rigor unquestionable.<\/p>\n ERRAND INTO THE MAZE<\/strong>: The Life and Works of Martha Graham<\/strong> | By Deborah Jowitt | Farrar, Straus & Giroux | 480 pp. | $35<\/p>\n<\/div>\n