East-Daikon’s Reviews > Blood Memory > Status Update

she gets points for her honesty and forthrightness but goodness what a picture. you're fine if you're the pope or the first lady or someone she considers 'above her' but if you're working with her you can literally expect physical assault which she brushes off as her part of her "violent period" like it's wild

now we have the correspondence between martha and her analyst (but one sided only). she seems to need to write the same way she needs to dance as a way to express her inner self. i don't always like her (she can be quite forceful and entitled... she's not a soft or humble person) but she's an interesting character

this book shocks me so much. her analyst is treating both her AND her husband (surely a major no-no?) plus the analyst meets martha outside of sessions for drinks, etc. (definitely a major no-no!). martha's life seems so atypical... it's like the normal rules of life don't apply to her in so many different domains. it's quite bizarre

oh and now BETTY FORD is a student! if you're interested in pop culture this is full of random celebrities and tea but the vibe isn't gossipy it's more that many famous people make random cameo appearances and she relates many little interactions

now she's relating the story of her love affair with the married artist carlus dyer. her gay male friends have a crush on carlus and having invited martha down knowing she'd sleep with him, hoping it would break up the marriage so they could be there to 'pick up the pieces after' (who ARE these people??!)

she seems quite proud of this, of being desired. she's probably hurt a lot of people quite carelessly

martha's also had 'movement for actors' classes and the list of people who have been students is quite surprising. (bette davis, woody allen, etc.) apparently her studio was shown in annie hall in the audition scene. i must look this up!

miss ruth and ted honestly sound a bit toxic. they take martha on but once she gets good reviews in ny "the only one to dance with passion and excitement" they don't like it bc they think she's a "nincompoop" and actually straight out say "not a true representative of denishawn". those two! not being cast in their oriental tour was a blessing in disguise, so glad martha joined the greenwich village follies instead

through a modern prism the years at denishawn are wildly unprofessional like the founders are a married couple but the guy is sleeping around with the students (he auditions men by requesting nudes! get the fuck out of here) and the boundaries seem very porous with martha living in their house and washing her teacher's hair, caring for her elderly mother like some sort of unpaid help??? it's bit abnormal

well it's a bit odd now. after high school she goes to the denishawn dance school. they accept her as a student even though at the audition she doesn't know how to dance. ruth st denis has a plan to bind martha's breasts and pass her off as a japanese boy that they've "discovered" but martha's mother puts the kybosh on this. she debuts four years later

so now she's explaining how it started. as a teenager she was walking along and saw a poster advertising a dance performance by ruth st denis and became obsessed with her. her father took her to los angeles to see a performance and from that point onwards she decides to be a dancer and they're totally supportive. it was so surprising how she could start so late a hundred years ago, it wouldn't happen today