Primitive Mysteries

"It remains one of the dance masterpieces of all time, certainly one of the few dance masterpieces of our generations." - Walter Terry, New York Herald Tribune

Primitive Mysteries (1931): Martha Graham and Dance GroupMartha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance

Primitive Mysteries (1931)

"Primitive Mysteries has its beginnings in the adoration of the Virgin as experienced in the Southwestern Spanish-American culture. Literally, it is a celebration of the coming of age of a young girl, spiritually it is the Madonna returned to Earth, blessed and blessing her followers, and then returning to Heaven to comfort her soul." – Martha Graham (program notes)

Primitive Mysteries (1931): Martha GrahamMartha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance

"Primitive Mysteries composed of 'Hymn to the Virgin', 'Crucifixus', and 'Hosanna', is a ritual perhaps a key ritual which does not specify any race, any faith or any period, but which applies to all. If it were performed in Cuzco's Temple of the Sun, at ancient Stonehenge, besides the hall of Karnak, or in the heart of Jerusalem, I am certain that it would stir the memories and caress the hearts of all its beholders, for it is eternally primitive in its quest for divine contact, for divine guidance through ritual." – Walter Terry, New York Herald Tribune, March 8, 1947

Craig Theatre Program from the premiere of Primitive Mysteries, 1931-02-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Martha Graham and Dorothy Bird, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Martha Graham and Dorothy Bird, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Martha Graham and Dance Group, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Martha Graham and Dance Group, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Martha Graham and Dance Group, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Martha Graham, 1931, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Yuriko and the Martha Graham Dance Company (1964-08-16)Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance

"Martha came three days before, in the evening, for the first time. Sophie Maslow was putting the piece together. In the first section, Hymn to the Virgin, I thought I was blessing the people that came to see me. Martha said, 'Yuriko, you are not blessing them, they are blessing you!' Which is completely opposite from what I was doing!" – Yuriko

Primitive Mysteries (1931): Yuriko, 1964, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Yuriko, 1964, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Yuriko and the Martha Graham Dance Company, 1964-08-16, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Pearl Lang and the Martha Graham Dance Company, 1977-06-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Pearl Lang and the Martha Graham Dance Company, 1977-06-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Phyllis Gutelius and the Martha Graham Dance Company, Martha Graham, 1977-05-18, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Takako Asakawa and the Martha Graham Dance Company, 1984-03-13, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Yuriko and the Martha Graham Dance Company, 1999, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Rika Okamoto and the Martha Graham Dance Company, 1999-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Rika Okamoto and the Martha Graham Dance Company, 1999-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): Yuriko and the Martha Graham Dance Company (1964-08-16)Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance

Primitive Mysteries: Reviving a Modern Masterpiece by Neil Baldwin (2017-02-02)Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance

Neil Baldwin, the cultural historian and critic, is the author of biographies of William Carlos Williams, Man Ray, and Thomas Edison. His previous essay on Martha Graham for Google Arts & Culture, Ninety Years Ago Tonight, was published on April 18, 2016. His book in progress is Martha Graham: When Dance Became Modern (under contract with Alfred A. Knopf.)  

Primitive Mysteries: Reviving a Modern Masterpiece by Neil Baldwin, 2017-02-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries: Reviving a Modern Masterpiece by Neil Baldwin, 2017-02-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries: Reviving a Modern Masterpiece by Neil Baldwin, 2017-02-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries: Reviving a Modern Masterpiece by Neil Baldwin, 2017-02-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries: Reviving a Modern Masterpiece by Neil Baldwin, 2017-02-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries: Reviving a Modern Masterpiece by Neil Baldwin, 2017-02-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries: Reviving a Modern Masterpiece by Neil Baldwin, 2017-02-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): PeiJu Chien-Pott and the Martha Graham Dance Company, 2017-02-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): PeiJu Chien-Pott and the Martha Graham Dance Company, 2017-02-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): PeiJu Chien-Pott and the Martha Graham Dance Company, 2017-02-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): PeiJu Chien-Pott and the Martha Graham Dance Company, 2017-02-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): PeiJu Chien-Pott and the Martha Graham Dance Company, 2017-02-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): PeiJu Chien-Pott and the Martha Graham Dance Company, 2017-02-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Primitive Mysteries (1931): PeiJu Chien-Pott and the Martha Graham Dance Company, 2017-02-02, From the collection of: Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance
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Credits: Story

Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, Inc. All Rights Reserved

For more information on the Martha Graham Dance Company's 2017 New York Season at The Joyce Theater, please visit us at: http://marthagraham.org/nyc2017

Curation by Oliver Tobin

A special thank you to Yuriko and Neil Baldwin for their contribution to this exhibition.

Works Cited:

Bird, Dorothy, and Joyce Greenberg. Bird's Eye View. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh Press, 1997. Print.

Graham, Martha. Blood Memory. New York: Doubleday, 1991. Print.

Mille, Agnes. Martha, The Life and Work of Martha Graham. New York: Random House, 1988. Print.

Terry, Walter. New York Herald Tribune 8 Mar. 1947: n. pag.

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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