Acknowledging the spiritual base linking “new” dance with radical politics helps to explain the somewhat incestuous relationship between “bourgeois” modern dance and revolutionary dance during this period. In 1934 dancers could march from the Workers Book Shop to the Martha Graham studio in no time, a fact that made it possible to fight the holy war of revolutionary politics and modern dance almost simultaneously. The powerful emotions that ignited dancers’ political efforts were in some way balanced by the intrinsic passion that infused the style of movement Graham was developing, an internal power allowing dancers to mobilize themselves instantaneously. One member of her company recalled:
“The technique was very passionate. It wasn’t cool, it was hot. And it was stripped of any ornamentation; it was like a knife cutting each time. It was stunning. It had an enormous use of space; just the body being flung into space. You had to have a certain amount of dedication because you were doing something nobody else had ever seen before… It takes a person who believes completely, who is totally dedicated, who is fanatical.”
Ellen Graff, from Stepping Left: Dance and Politics in New York City 1928-1942
