Martha Graham, Mexico, and the American Gesture.

This essay argues that Martha Graham consciously created narratives about her 1932 journey to Mexico to position her theatrical dance as a legitimate American art form. Promoted as part of her search for an "American gesture," her trip there manifested her intent to locate her dance firmly within the context of the land-based, nativist currents of modernism in the United States. While the lands and peoples of the Americas may have provided catalysts for her early work, much of the writing about her "Indian" inspirations during this period is called into question by historical documents such as Louis Horst's journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]