Helen Keller Pays a Visit to Martha Graham’s Dance Studio Circa 1954

Helen Keller’s story is remarkable. With the help of Anne Sullivan, Keller (1880-1968) escaped from a “double dungeon of darkness and silence” and achieved great things. In 1904, she graduated from Radcliffe College (now Harvard), becoming the first deaf blind person to earn a B.A. in the U.S..  She went on to write 14 books (a few more than the rest of us) and championed important political causes. A radical at heart, she backed women’s suffrage and birth control movements, helped found the ACLU, urged pacifism, and railed against capitalism. She counted many world leaders and cultural luminaries as friends, palling around with figures like Charlie Chaplin and Mark Twain. And then there’s the time she paid a visit to the dance studio of Martha Graham and gained a tactile introduction to modern dance. The narrator describes the memorable scene fairly well. But, if you want more backstory and photos, you should head over to BrainPickings to get the bigger picture.

Related Must-See Video: Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan Together in 1930