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DIRECTIONS: There are one passages in this test. The passage is accompanied by several questions. After reading the passage, choose the best answer to each question. You may refer to the passages as often as necessary.
PASSAGE
In 1926, Martha Graham’s first company, billed as “Martha Graham and Dance Group,” made its debut. Most of the dances, with titles like The Three Gopi Maidens and Maid with the Flaxen Hair, were reminiscent of her Denishawn days, though there were sparks of freshness and originality. Newspaper critics found Martha and her trio of dancers “decorative, pretty and undisturbing.” Graham herself would later describe those early dances as “childish things, dreadful.”
In the next few years her dances would prove daring and innovative. From 1926 through 1930 she created seventy-nine new dances for herself and her Dance Group.
In 1927 she stunned her audience with a short solo called Revolt, a dance that was anything but “decorative, pretty and undisturbing.” Revolt was Martha’s first dance of social protest, a stark, forceful comment on injustice and the outraged human spirit.
The 1920s were a decade of experimentation in all the arts—in painting, music, literature, and the theater—and a new breed of young dancers wanted to speak for the changing times in which they lived. While they respected classical ballet as an art, they felt that it could never say enough about the pressing concerns of contemporary life.
Classical ballet dated back more than three hundred years to its origins as an elegant spectacle in the royal courts of Europe. With its five basic positions of
the feet, prescribed positions of the body, and geometric relationships among the dancers, ballet was a highly controlled dance form.
To the rebellious young American dancers of the time, traditional European ballet seemed decadent and undemocratic. They regarded its dashing princes and dying swans as escapist and antiquated, and its elaborate formal technique as artificial and restricting. In place of ballet’s fanciful stories they explored serious themes dealing with ordinary people and modern life. They did away with glamorous costumes and scenery and danced in simple outfits on bare stages. Their dances were meant to be challenging and disturbing.
In 1929 Martha Graham and Dance Group gave the first performance of Heretic, regarded today as her earliest major work. Dressed in white, and with loose, flowing hair, Martha danced in opposition to a double row of women clad in black Puritan garb, their hair drawn straight back and knotted, their stern faces set like white masks. Again and again the solitary heretic struggles to advance, trying to break through a barrier formed by the women in black. But each time they move rigidly in unison, blocking her way like automatons, as their bare feet slam down onto the floor. Some of the dancers lunge at the heretic, some seem to be spitting at her, while others turn their backs. Heretic was meant to be provocative. The dance can be seen as a powerful condemnation of intolerance, especially toward people who are different in some way—a theme that Graham would return to again. “To many people, I was a heretic,” she wrote. “In many ways, I showed onstage what most people came to the theater to avoid.”
This new kind of dance wasn’t to everyone’s liking. It was neither beautiful nor romantic. Some critics complained that Graham’s spare, stark, unsmiling dance style seemed tortured and distorted.
Martha and her fellow “modern” dancers were often the butt of ridicule and hostile jokes. Women in America had won the right to vote only a few years earlier, in 1920, and many people were still uncomfortable with the image of the “new woman” who sought a career, spoke out on social issues, and went knowledgeably to the polls. It was all right to be a highkicking, scantily clad chorus girl, but a woman who ran a dance company and created works that commented on war, poverty, and intolerance seemed unnatural and suspicious.
Martha’s work was so startlingly different, people did not always know how to react. After one of her early recitals, a friend from her Denishawn days went backstage and said, “Martha, dear, how long do you expect to keep up this dreadful dancing?”
“As long as I have an audience,” Martha replied.
Graham’s last complete work, composed when she was ninety-six years old, is one of her most joyful. Maple Leaf Rag, a self-mocking commentary on human foibles and on her own legend, is set to the ragtime tunes of Scott Joplin. At the time of her death, she was working on a new dance, commissioned by the govern- ment of Spain.
“Many people have asked me if I have a favorite role,” Graham once said. “To which I always answer that my favorite role is the one I am dancing now.”
QUESTIONS
1. Which of the following statements best describes the nature of this passage?
A. A biographical sketch that gives nearly equal attention to both Graham’s work and her personal life
B. A chronological account of Graham’s life begin- ning with her early childhood and ending with her Denishawn days
C. A description of Graham’s work and philosophy that focuses on placing her early dances into his- torical context
D. A depiction of Graham’s philosophy of dance and how that philosophy had come to be seen as out- dated by the time of her death
2. The author would most likely describe Graham’s dancing as:
F. decorative and pretty.
G. joyful and lighthearted.
H. stark and overly simplistic.
J. daring and rebellious.
3. Based on the passage, Graham in later life would most likely characterize her dance company’s debut as:
A. a promising beginning.
B. an immature presentation.
C. an appeal for understanding.
D. a quest for modern expression.
4. According to the passage, which of the following features is NOT associated with classical ballet?
F. Whimsical story lines
G. Challenging themes
H. Prescribed positions
J. Restrictive techniques
5. As depicted in the passage, Graham’s role in Heretic can best be described as one in which her character is:
A. unwilling to accept rigid social standards.
B. able to overcome difficulties easily.
C. ignorant of what others think of her.
D. unaware of differences that make her unusual.
6. The author claims that many people in the 1920s who were uncomfortable with the activities of the “new woman” found it more acceptable for women to:
F. vote knowledgeably in elections.
G. run a business.
H. dance to advocate social causes.
J. dance suggestively in a chorus line.
7. . It can reasonably be inferred from the passage that part of the encouragement Graham received for her dancing came from:
A. the reaction of friends from her Denishawn days.
B. early and widespread support from critics.
C. recognition of her growth as a classical dancer.
D. the appreciation of an accepting audience.
8. Based on the passage, the period from 1926 to 1930 for Graham’s dance company could best be described as a time of:
F. uninterrupted tranquility.
G. critical acclaim.
H. rich productivity.
J. popular acceptance.
9. As quoted in the passage, Graham suggests that Heretic is symbolic of:
A. her painful childhood experiences.
B. the reaction to her work as an adult.
C. her experience of being criticized for her religious beliefs.
D. the way she was often rejected while attending the Denishawn School of Dancing.
10. The critics referred to in the eighth paragraph were most nearly complaining that Graham’s dancing was:
F. misleading and sentimental.
G. awkward and contorted.
H. meandering and second-rate.
J. agonizing and unoriginal.
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