Lighting Design

Martha’s dramatic works have a certain artistic weight to them simply on their own, but the lighting which accompanies her works makes her choreographic genius that much more evident. I am a sucker for good stage lighting; I can feel the shift in mood and emotion more if the lighting is unique to its respective choreography. I think lighting is the most important aspect of a performance (aside from the choreography itself, of course), and apparently, so did Graham.

While teaching at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, Graham became acquainted with the now famous lighting designer, Jean Rosenthal. Rosenthal studied light design at Yale University, and then went on to change the world of theatrical lighting forever. Known mostly for inventing the use of flood lighting on stage to illuminate performers from a better, more effective angle, Rosenthal created the lighting-design career path.

After meeting at the Playhouse, Rosenthal and Graham worked together on 36 of Martha’s 161 works in her career. Rosenthal was known to manipulate her lighting throughout pieces, shows, and ballets in order to maintain the same emotional effect as the performance. Throughout their time working together, Jean learned more and more about what exactly Martha was looking for in her works, and eventually created her famous diagonal shaft of light which she deemed “Martha’s Finger of God.”

Here is a fine example of Rosenthal’s work for Martha in her piece, Errand Into the Maze (1947).