Martha Graham had a great impact in american modern dance by creating a new technique. This technique was based on breath and contractions. This technique has been used in most dance classes and at most universities. It became her lasting language.
In 1926 she created her dance company. On her companies website, they say this about her developing her own technique “In developing her technique, Martha Graham experimented endlessly with basic human movement, beginning with the most elemental movements of contraction and release. Using these principles as the foundation for her technique, she built a vocabulary of movement that would “increase the emotional activity of the dancer’s body.” [1]
This increase of “emotional activity” [1] in the body allowed her to dance and choreograph with sharp, angular movements.
Martha Graham went on and inspired Merce Cunningham with some movement material but also with Graham’s technique. She also shaped the contemporary dance by using contractions and breath.
Information gained from Bibliography:
[1]
Callum Dance Blog 