Martha Graham Essay Example for Free

Martha Graham Essay Yes, I would do that. I had found my fate. †(Hari 70) Daoud Hari is a man that travels in and out of Darfur many, many times putting himself at risk. He was willing to risk his own life while many others think only of themselves. Bravery is not something many people are born with. Some people may obtain it and some do not. Martha Graham is one of the people that did obtain bravery, and it was a very strong bravery that is very rare to find. â€Å"Martha Graham’s dancing and choreography exposed the depths of human emotion through movements that were sharp, angular, jagged, and direct. (â€Å"Martha Graham Dancer’s Journal†) Martha Graham experimented with many different movements and many different ways so her dancing was very different from the dance movement people were most comfortable with. Many people criticized her and told her that her work was too out of the ordinary. â€Å"If Graham ever gave birth,† one critic equipped, â€Å"it would be to a cube. † (â€Å"The Dancer†) No matter what critics said, she kept going. Martha Graham was an innovative and focused individual. Her love of dance was so intense she refused to leave the stage when critic’s said she was too old. That’s the type of bravery people need, the bravery to keep doing something that one believes in when the majority is against them. Daoud Hari’s bravery is similar to Martha Graham’s. Daoud Hari had to learn to accept what might happen to him if he kept returning to Darfur. Sometimes it is difficult to accept the fate, but Daoud Hari was willing to accept the possibility of death if it meant he could change the way people viewed Darfur. â€Å"No single group held the territory. There was no one to call for permission to come through. This is when it is most dangerous to travel. † (Hari 122) Daoud Hari always had to get where he needed to be. No matter what the circumstances were at the time, he provided as much information as possible to the reporters traveling with him to get the word out about Darfur. Armed with his ability to speak Zaghawa, Arabic, and English he was able to translate for the news and aid organizations. Even though the government of Sudan had outlawed journalists to the region, Daoud Hari risked the possibility of capture and even death. This is complete bravery- to accept something that could happen any moment of any day at any time. Heroes need to have trust in themselves. Martha Graham always had trust in herself no matter what she did. Most of her works she created were based on a historical or emotional feeling. â€Å"There are always ancestral footsteps behind me, pushing me, when I am creating a new dance, and gestures are flowing through me. Whether good or bad, they are ancestral. † (Yaari) The dances with a historic background behind them were called the Greek cycle. These dances were the ones that officially made her famous. The movements in them were so empowering people were shocked after experiencing them. The reason people liked them was because they related so much to how harsh history had been to society in the past and how it might be in the future. Serious issues such as the Great Depression and the Spanish Civil War were brought to the stage along with the dark emotions experienced by all. If she had never followed her brain, heart, or spirit then none of these dances would have come alive. Trusting in herself was a key factor in the making of many of her works. Martha Graham, much like Daoud Hari, had to find a way to believe in herself and take dance to the next level whether based on her gut feeling or her spirit regardless of what people thought of her. Daoud Hari always followed his gut. Whenever he saw people in pain, he would trust his gut and try and help the people in need no matter who they were or what they believed in. â€Å"The commander ordered a soldier to go get him some food, but I said that he must not eat our kind of food, that someone must go into town and get him an American-style sandwich that a white man could eat, and a coke or Pepsi. There was an argument about the cost of this, but I assured the commander that our food would kill this man, and I truly believed that he was not strong enough for anything but his own food. (Hari 160) Daoud Hari is one of the few in the world that could actually tell a guard to go get another prisoner food because the prisoner looked like he was about to die. Trusting his gut that the guard would do it is about 99% of the battle that he had to face. It was not getting the prisoners food; it was standing up to the guard and saying that he will die if he does not have an American- style meal. Martha Graham and Daoud H ari are both heroes in their own way. They both have confidence, bravery, and trust in themselves, which are the necessary traits that a hero needs to be a true hero. In the world there are people who see bad things being done to people and do not do anything about it and there are people who do something about the bad things being done. This is essential because Daoud Hari and Martha Graham both helped the people that needed to be helped. Martha Graham helped dancers develop a new style that they might like better than ballet, providing a wider spectrum to choose from. Daoud Hari helped numerous news reporters get into Darfur and get back out safely with what they wanted and what they needed to know about what is happening in Darfur.