Fun Facts

• Martha adored animals especially elephants.

•  She was a vegetarian.

• In high school she played on the school basketball team, participated in the theater department, and was editor in chief of the high school yearbook

• Collaborated with Calvin Klein

• Once when a student asked her if she should pursue dance Martha answered "If you have to ask then the answer is no."

• She did not believe in retirement because she believed that is the time you die.

• Since she was so strong willed and all her dances were centered around a woman protagonist she was often mistaken as a lesbian

• First dancer to perform in the White House

• First dancer to tour abroad as a cultural ambassador

• Martha said the center of the stage is where she was.

• Awards: Key to Paris, Japan Order of the Precious Crown, a Kennedy Center Award, and many others

• Equated art to religion: Whoever pursued arts where enticed by god.