Analysis of Martha Graham's Dance Piece 'Night Journey'

Powerful, symbolic and meaningful. These are three words that are very commonly used to describe Martha Graham’s 1971 dance piece Night Journey. Martha Graham paved the way for contemporary dance and this piece is a perfect example of why she is known as the mother of modern dance. Night Journey utilizes a range of motif, symbolic movement and non-movement components to masterfully tell the story of Oedipus Rex and Jocasta. The story of Oedipus and Jocasta is a shocking one, and once unveiled, their dark and disturbing love story is not an easy one to forget. This specific dance piece focuses on Oedipus unintentionally fulfilling a prophecy in which he unknowingly kills his own father and marries and has children his mother, thereby bringing disaster to his city and family. A small section of this dance will be analyzed and interpreted to prove that Night Journey is complete with inner meaning, excitement and surge.

The inner meaning, power and surge throughout this piece are uncovered through the movements of Oedipus, Jocasta, Tiresias and the Corps. Many of Jocasta’s movements appear to glide, flow, or wander, but she continually abruptly thrusts her legs outward in a series of deep and expansive developes to the side, wrenching her upper body in one direction then another. This is known as a “vaginal cry.” This gesture represents Jocasta’s longing, lust, passionate outcries, shame, and helplessness towards her relationship with Oedipus. Tiresias tapping the rope that Oedipus and Jocasta are entangled in and

The corps are an extremely significant part in telling the story of Oedipus and Jocasta. The corps represents the social conscience at the time of these events. There is motif throughout this section of the corps covering their eyes and face. This is to signify them trying to look away from horror of the events unveiling in their city. Distress is a motif throughout all the chorus’ movements. Firstly, the contractions are used to create a vomiting motion, and there is also a section in which they all make “distressed” movements while on their knees. Both these sequences display societies distress and disgust with Oedipus and Jocasta’s relationship. Martha Graham has also used the placement of the corps to show the perspective society had into Oedipus’ and Jocasta’s relationship. While Oedipus and Jocasta are becoming entangled in the rope at the back, the corps are in front, obscuring the audiences view of Oedipus and Jocasta. This was done to show that society at the time didn’t have a clear view of what was happening to Oedipus and Jocasta behind closed doors. So, in full, Martha Graham has used the corps to show the perspective and views of society during these events.

There are many significant non-movement components in this dance. One of the extremely significant ones is the rope. It is used throughout the entire dance and can be interpreted as many things, but it is mainly conceived as Jocasta and Oedipus’ bond as wife and husband and mother and son. The first appearance of the rope is when Oedipus and Jocasta are tying each other up, becoming tangled in the rope and each other. This signifies them being in a confusing and “tied-up” relationship. It can also be interpreted as an umbilical cord, connecting them as mother and son. The set is used to create inner meaning and further explain the background of the story. This first piece is the wheel. The wheel usually represents the ‘wheel of fate’ in Classic myths and adds to the disturbing misfortune of Jocasta and Oedipus. This wheel of fate belongs to the goddess Tyche. It is spun at random, either causing great misfortune or bringing providence. This is exactly what happened to Oedipus and Jocasta. They were king and Queen of Thebes, highly respected, and then the wheel of fate turned, and their lives turned upside down. Apollo’s symbols are also integrated into the set very subtly, to show Apollo’s intervention in the fulfilment of Oedipus’ destiny. Tiresias, the blind seer, is a prophet of Apollo and tells Oedipus the prophecy that he will marry his mother and kill his father. Tiresias received this prophecy from Apollo, therefore meaning that Apollo is the cause of Oedipus and Jocasta’s downfall. This connection is shown through the stones in the set. Apollo has 5 symbols. These symbols consist of the silver bow and arrows, the lyre, animals and birds, the laurel tree and the sun, golden chariot and crops and shepherds. These five symbols are represented in the five stones leading up to the bed to show how Apollo has caused these events and how his prophet lead to the breakdown of both Jocasta and Oedipus and to represent Oedipus’ journey into Thebes. The bed is inspired by the contours of a woman’s pelvis to represent, as with the vaginal cries, the feelings of longing, lust, shame, and helplessness connected with that part of the body. Graham states in her autobiography Blood Memory, that the setting of Night Journey is meant to be the “sacred room” where Jocasta lived, loved, and was a mother: “I would like to believe that she was born in this room: perhaps she was, perhaps she wasn’t. Her love life was consummated here. The birth of her children occurred here. And she rushed here to meet the final destiny of her life, her suicide”. Overall, the set is very minimalistic, with both symbolic and functional use, and further displays the inner meaning, power and surge throughout the dance piece.

After this analysis, it is clear that Martha Graham has masterfully used a range of non-movement and movement components to tell the story of Oedipus and Jocasta. She has formed a great deal of inner meaning, power and surge throughout each feature of the dance and Night Journey has created the foundations of modern dance. There is no doubt that Martha Graham will forever live on as the mother of modern dance.