Beloved Teacher Retires After 45 Years

Martha Armstrong Gray’s career in dance encompasses more than four decades of performance, choreography, and teaching. As the head of The Cambridge School of Weston’s (CSW) dance department since 1968, she developed a flourishing program that celebrates diversity in the world of dance, welcoming the uninitiated students to the floor, while providing advanced dancers with rigorous training and numerous creative opportunities. A Tribute Dance Show will be held to honor her service on Saturday, June 15, 2013 at 4:00 p.m. at CSW, 45 Georgian Road Weston, MA 02493. From the Horse’s Mouth will feature performances from more than 20 CSW alumni from various dance backgrounds. This nationally recognized performance structure has featured the who’s who of the dance world for more than two decades. Event information can be found at www.csw.org/MarthaTribute

Gray’s early training included ballet and modern dance, which she was introduced to at The National Music Camp, in Interlochen, Michigan. Her first modern teacher was Joseph Gifford, now in his 90’s, a well-known choreographer and teacher in the Boston area. For her last two years of high school, Gray sought more consistent and serious dance training and moved to Chicago, where she attended the Francis W. Parker School, and studied ballet with highly respected teachers Walter Camryn and Bentley Stone. During her time in Chicago, she also danced with the Chicago Contemporary Dance Company directed by West Indian dancer, Neville Black.

Gray graduated from Bennington College in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in dance, and immediately after graduation, she began teaching at the summer program at CSW. She was offered a part-time position to teach dance classes twice a week under the supervision of the physical education department. Dance soon became part of CSW’s arts program and its own department, and Gray became the department’s first chair.

At CSW, the dance department’s emphasis on choreography came naturally out of Gray’s belief in enabling a transforming and empowering experience for young dancers, regardless of their experience or style of dance. The first annual Dance Concert, an all student-choreographed show was produced one year after Gray began.

“The dance concert process is the most fun time of the year for me,” Gray says. “I get to see what the students are really capable of. It is so moving to see their artistic voices given a chance to shine. Students step up to a higher level of effort, because we tell them from day one that they are capable of creating beautiful work. This philosophy spans all the arts departments at CSW.”

Throughout her time at CSW, Gray also treasured opportunities to collaborate with faculty in other disciplines to help create innovative and integrated courses. “People, Movement, Paint, and Clay,” a course she co-taught with a former visual arts teacher, is one of her most memorable experiences. In all, she has collaborated on and has team-taught interdisciplinary courses with faculty in music, science, languages, English, history, and the visual arts. Gray created a U.S. History course called “Rebels and Revolutionaries in American Dance.”  It focuses on the African and African American influences on modern and contemporary dance in the United States, and arose out of a trip with CSW students to Ghana in 2004.

“That trip to Ghana rejuvenated my belief that dance belongs to everyone, regardless of age, gender, or physical ability.  In Ghana, everyone dances.” Gray shared.

Current CSW Head of School Jane Moulding is sentimental about about Gray’s departure after 45 years.

“Martha’s influence has created a truly holistic dance department at CSW,” said Moudling. “She has stimulated, encouraged and inspired students of all dance levels and talent.”

In addition to her teaching career at CSW, Gray co-founded and co-directed Boston Dance Collective, a professional contemporary dance company, for which she has created nearly 80 original works that have won awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, the WBZ Fund for the Arts, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Dance companies throughout the United States and in Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy have performed her choreographed work, and Martha has taught workshops for professional dancers and teachers in Holland and Yugoslavia. She also co-founded with Professor Emeritus Nelson Goodman, the Harvard Summer Dance Center, which she directed for five years. Her multi-media production of “Hockey Seen,” which she created in collaboration with Goodman, aired on Belgian Radio and Television. In addition, as an advocate for arts programs in public schools, Martha served on the Board of the Massachusetts Alliance for Arts in Education. With Dawn Kramer, she co-founded the Dance Collective Summer Outreach Program, now known as REACH.  The program works out of Boston University and brings dance experiences every summer to more than 1,400 children in Boston area summer camps.

In addition to her bachelor’s degree from Bennington, Gray holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University and her teaching certification from the state of Massachusetts.