Press Release From
Jonathan Marder + Associates
THE
MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY
POLITICAL DANCE PROJECT
WORLD PREMIERES OF
AMERICAN DOCUMENT (2010) AND DANCE IS A WEAPON
THE JOYCE THEATER
TUESDAY JUNE 8 THRU SUNDAY JUNE 13, 2010
From June 8 until June 13 the Martha Graham Dance
Company will present eight
performances at The Joyce Theater featuring four
remarkable programs, each combining new commissions
with classics. Premiers include a re-conceived
staging of American Document (2010) directed by
Anne Bogart, created and performed by the Martha
Graham Dance Company and SITI Company, and Dance
is a Weapon. The classics Appalachian Spring,
Panorama, and Sketches from
‘Chronicle’ will also be performed.
This season launches the Company’s Political
Dance Project.
“We are highlighting the era of the 1930s
when the nascent art form of American modern dance
was fueled by the political and social activism
of the time,” says Artistic Director Janet
Eilber. “Modern dance took on the plight
of the oppressed of all races and backgrounds.
Dances were created as if ‘ripped from the
headlines’ – with themes that aligned
modern dance to the complex social
concerns of the day including the financial crisis,
civil rights, workers rights, and the rise of
fascism in Europe. The performances at The Joyce
will explore the issues of that time and how they
reverberate today in the ongoing dialogue about
who we are as a nation.”
American Document (2010) premiering on opening
night is not a dance by Martha Graham, but it
is closely tied to one of her seminal works, American
Document from 1938. American Document (2010) is
a theatrical piece directed by Anne Bogart for
six actors from SITI Company and ten Graham dancers.
Using filmed excerpts, written descriptions and
Graham's handwritten notes, Bogart and
playwright Charles L. Mee have reinvented American
Document for the 21st century by incorporating
text from a variety of sources including Walt
Whitman's poetry and blogs from American soldiers
in Iraq. The work, which includes speaking and
dancing by all the performers, probes the same
issues as Graham's original: what is an American?
American Document (2010) will be followed by Martha
Graham’s 1936 masterwork Sketches from ‘Chronicle’
on the evenings of June 8, 11, 12 and 13.
Dance is a Weapon will premiere on June 9. This
multimedia montage envisioned by Janet Eilber
is based on an exhibit created by Victoria Geduld
with text, images and media by Ellen Graff, Victoria
Geduld and Nancy Stevens, and presents dances
from the 1920s and 1930s by Graham and her contemporaries.
Dance is a Weapon opens with a solo by Isadora
Duncan: The Revolutionary. It is a
rallying cry -- inspiring action and courage.
This is followed by three other seminal solos
of the era:
Tenant of the Street by Eve Gentry (a portrait
of a homeless woman – downtrodden but defiant);
I Ain’t Got No Home (from Dust Bowl Ballads)
by Sophie Maslow (a solo evoking the displaced
people of the Dust Bowl Era, bowed by circumstances
but determined to move on); and Time is Money
by Jane Dudley (a powerful statement against “the
machine” of commerce).
These solos will be followed by Panorama, a work
by Graham from 1935 that speaks of the power of
the people to take social action. The cast for
Panorama at The Joyce will be thirty-three high
school students from all over New York City chosen
for these performances by a city-wide audition
process.
The Dance is a Weapon montage will conclude with
Graham’s “Steps in the Street”
and “Prelude to Action,” two sections
of her work Chronicle from 1936. Eilber notes,
“This is the same year Martha turned down
Hitler’s invitation to perform at the International
Arts Festival running concurrent with the Olympic
games in Berlin.” Performed by the women
of the Company, “Steps in the Street”
evokes the devastation and isolation that war
leaves in its wake while “Prelude to Action”
suggests a response.
Dance is a Weapon will be followed by the work
Graham created in 1944 as her contribution to
the war effort, Appalachian Spring, on the evening
of June 9 and the matinee on June 13.
On June 10, the Company will present a program
that celebrates Graham classics: Panorama, Appalachian
Spring, Lamentation Variations, and Sketches from
‘Chronicle’.
Lamentation Variations commemorates the anniversary
of 9/11 and premiered on that date in 2007. The
work opens with a film from the early 1930s of
Martha Graham dancing movements from her then
new, and now iconic, solo, Lamentation. The variations
that follow were developed by choreographers Larry
Keigwin, Richard Move and Bulareyaung Pagarlava.
Each created a choreographic sketch of their reaction
to the Graham film. Originally to be performed
one night
only, the audience reaction to Lamentation Variations
was such that it has been added to the permanent
repertory of the Martha Graham Dance Company and
new variations have been commissioned.
The June 12 matinee will include the premieres
of three new dances based on the original Graham
American Document. Three choreographers (all leading
dancers with the Martha Graham Company) have been
paired with three composers to create new American
Document “Episodes.” They have chosen
text that speaks to the American experience and
that will be woven into the dancing. The
composers are creating music with specific instrumentation
that relates to the original score for American
Document. Graham II, the Graham Center’s
pre-professional company, will be featured in
the new Episodes. The choreographers are Tadej
Brdnik, Samuel Pott and Blakeley White-McGuire.
They are paired respectively with composers Patrick
Leonard, Allen Krantz and Daniel Bernard
Roumain.
The Martha Graham Dance Company is exploring new
and creative ways to connect Graham’s extraordinary
legacy to today’s audiences. While the company
offers world-class performances of the core collection
of Graham masterworks, it also continues to take
on innovative projects that honor Martha Graham’s
appetite for the new.
The Graham season programming includes a great
range of creative events including multimedia
enhancement; classic works from Graham’s
contemporaries; a Graham masterwork performed
by thirty-three high school students from all
over New York City; three premieres by emerging
choreographers and important composers; performances
of seminal Graham masterpieces; and a
major new dance/theater work which will premiere
on opening night.
