Venue: Theatre

Dates: October 30-31, 2018

About

Ekstasis

Choreographer: Martha Graham

Reimagined: Virginie Mécène

Costume Designer: Martha Graham

Original Music: Lehman Engel

Music for reimagined Ekstasis: Ramon Humet

Lighting Designer: Nick Hung

Premiere: May 4th, 1933, Guild Theatre, New York City

Ekstasis (reimagined): February 14th, 2017, The Joyce Theater, New York City

Ekstasis is thought to be the 87th creation by Graham. In a 1980 interview, Graham explained that the genesis of this dance came from a pelvic thrust gesture that she discovered one day. This led her to explore “a cycle of distortion” that she found deeply meaningful. “Before Ekstasis, I had been using a more static form, trying to find a ritualist working of the body,” she concluded. Virginie Mécène reimagined this version of Ekstasis based on the sparse documentation of this original solo, which included a few photos by Soichi Sunami and Barbara Morgan.

Dark Meadow Suite

Choreographer and Costume Designer: Martha Graham

Arr.: Janet Eilber

Music: Carlos Chávez

Lighting Designer: Nick Hung

Premiere: April 1st, 2016, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Dark Meadow Suite is made up of highlights from a much longer work by Martha Graham, Dark Meadow, which was premiered on January 23rd, 1946, Plymouth Theatre, New York City. The Suite, created in 2016, is designed to feature the exceptional choreography that Graham created for the ensemble of dancers in Dark Meadow. Both the unison dancing and the partnering have been recognized as some of Graham's most architectural, ritualistic and profound creations. They are clearly inspired by Graham’s love of the rituals of the natives of both the American Southwest and Mexico, which she observed as a young woman. The Mexican composer Carlos Chavez wrote the spacious musical score for Graham. The dancers often work in counterpoint to the score using the sound of their feet and other body percussion effects. In her original programme note, Graham wrote, “Dark Meadow is a re-enactment of the mysteries which attend the eternal adventure of seeking.” It is an abstract work about life’s journey and the search for connection with one's self and one's community. This dance is a prime example of Graham as a leader in mid-20th century modernism.

Errand into the Maze

Choreographer: Martha Graham

Music: Gian Carlo Menotti

Lighting Designer: Lauren Libretti

Costumes Designer: Maria Garcia

Premiere: February 28th, 1947, Ziegfeld Theatre, New York City

Errand into the Maze was premiered in 1947 with a score by Gian Carlo Menotti, set design by Isamu Noguchi and starring Martha Graham. The duet is loosely derived from the myth of Theseus, who journeys into the labyrinth to confront the Minotaur, a creature who is half man and half beast. Martha Graham retells the tale from the perspective of Ariadne, who descends into the labyrinth to conquer the Minotaur. The current production of Errand into the Maze was created in reaction to the damage done to the sets and costumes by Hurricane Sandy. This version, stripped of the classic production elements, is meant to intensify our focus on the dramatic, physical journey of the choreography itself.

Lamentation Variations

Choreographers: Bulareyaung Pagarlava, Aszure Barton, Larry Keigwin

Music: Gustav Mahler, George Crumb, Frédéric Chopin

Lighting Designer: Beverly Emmons

Premiere: September 11th, 2007, Joyce Theater, New York City

Lamentation Variations is an event that was conceived in 2007 to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11. The work is based on a film from the early 1940s of Martha Graham dancing movements from her then new, and now iconic, solo, Lamentation. Each choreographer was asked to create a spontaneous choreographic sketch of their reaction to the Graham film, and was required to adhere to the following conditions: 10 hours of rehearsal, public domain music or silence, basic costumes and lighting design. Though it was planned to be performed on only one occasion, the audience reception for the Lamentation Variations was such that it has been added to the permanent repertory of the Martha Graham Dance Company.

Woodland

Choreographer: Pontus Lidberg

Music: Irving Fine

Costumes Designers: Reid Bartelme, Harriet Jung

Mask Patterns Designer: Wintercroft Designs

Lighting Designer: Nick Hung

Premiere: April 1st, 2016, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Using Irving Fine's music as my point of departure, rather than using a concept, I heard structure as well as possible imagery: woodland, moonlight and wandering creatures. I wanted to interact with the music, not just impose choreography on it, so I chose to reorder the movements and add a repeat, turning a linear work into one that is almost cyclical—a structure that I've explored continuously in my compositions. I also often take inspiration and impetus from the dancers, and the Graham dancers have been a generous and inspiring group of collaborators. Woodland was developed in collaboration with these dancers. In the end, as in many of my works, the individual is a counterpoint to the group—somewhat isolated and looking for the means to connect with others, all the while remaining separated on a singular trajectory.

Programme

Dark Meadow Suite

Ekstasis

Lamentation Variations

——Intermission——

Errand into the Maze

Woodland

Creative

Martha Graham Choreographer

Martha Graham’s revolutionary vision and artistic mastery has had a deep and lasting impact on American art and culture. Her bold use of socially infused subjects and emotionally charged performances single-handedly defined contemporary dance as a uniquely American art form, which the nation has in turn shared with the world.

Janet Eilber Artistic Director

Janet Eilber has been the Martha Graham Centre’s Artistic Director since 2005. Her direction has focused on creating new forms of audience access to the Martha Graham's masterworks. These initiatives include designing contextual programming, educational and community partnerships, use of new media, and commissions and creative events such as the Lamentation Variations and Prelude and Revolt. In recent projects, she has created new arrangements of classic Graham choreography for such wide-ranging projects as the Martha Graham Google Doodle and the Italian theatre production of Cercando Picasso starring Giorgio Albertazzi. Earlier in her career, as a Principal Dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Ms. Eilber worked closely with Martha Graham. She danced many of Graham’s greatest roles, had roles created for her by Graham, and was directed by Graham in most of the major roles of the repertory. She soloed at the White House, was partnered by Rudolf Nureyev, starred in three segments of Dance in America, and has since taught, lectured, and directed Graham ballets internationally. Apart from her work with Graham, Ms. Eilber has performed in films, on television, and on Broadway, directed by such greats as Agnes de Mille and Bob Fosse, and has received four Lester Horton Awards for her reconstruction and performance of seminal American modern dance. She has served as Director of Arts Education for the Dana Foundation, guiding the Foundation’s support for Teaching Artist training and contributing regularly to its arts education publications. Ms. Eilber is a Trustee Emerita of the Interlochen Centre for the Arts. She is married to screenwriter/director John Warren, with whom she has two daughters, Madeline and Eva.

Denise Vale Senior Artistic Associate

Denise Vale joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1985, attaining the rank of Principal Dancer. Roles performed include the Pioneering Woman in Appalachian Spring, Woman in White in Diversion of Angels, Chorus Leader in Night Journey, Chorus in Cave of the Heart, the Attendant in Hérodiade, Leader in the 1980s reconstruction of Steps in the Street, and Night Chant, a ballet created for Ms. Vale by Martha Graham in 1989. Graham solos performed include Lamentation, Frontier, Satyric Festival Song, and Serenata Morisca.

Artist

Lloyd Knight

Principal Dancer

Ben Schultz

Principal Dancer

XIN Ying

Principal Dancer

Presenter

The Martha Graham Dance Company

The Martha Graham Dance Company has been a world leader in the development of contemporary dance since its founding in 1926. Today, under the direction of Artistic Director Janet Eilber, the Company is embracing a new programming vision that showcases masterpieces by Graham alongside newly commissioned works by contemporary artists. With programmes that offer a rich thematic narrative, the Company creates new platforms for contemporary dance and multiple points of access for audiences.

Since its inception, the Company has received international acclaim from audiences in over 50 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The Company has performed at such illustrious venues as the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, the Paris Opera House, and Covent Garden, as well as at the base of the Great Pyramids of Egypt and in the ancient Herod Atticus Theatre on the Acropolis in Athens. In addition, the Company has also produced several award-winning films broadcast on PBS and around the world.

Though Martha Graham herself is the best-known alumna of her company, the Company has provided a training ground for some of modern dance’s most celebrated performers and choreographers. Former members of the Company include Merce Cunningham, Erick Hawkins, Paul Taylor, John Butler and Glen Tetley. Among celebrities who have joined the Company in performance are Mikhail Baryshnikov, Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, Maya Plisetskaya, Tiler Peck, Misty Copeland, Herman Cornejo and Aurelie Dupont.

In recent years, the Company has challenged expectations and experimented with a wide range of offerings beyond its mainstage performances. It has created a series of intimate in-studio events, forged unusual creative partnerships with the likes of SITI Company, Performa, the New Museum, Barney's, and Siracusa’s Greek Theatre Festival (to name a few). It has created substantial digital offerings with Google Arts and Culture, YouTube, and Cennarium, and a model for reaching new audiences through social media. The astonishing list of artists who have created works for the Graham dancers in the last decade reads like a catalog of must-see choreographers: Kyle Abraham, Aszure Barton, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Lucinda Childs, Marie Chouinard, Michelle Dorrance, Nacho Duato, Mats Ek, Andonis Foniadakis, Liz Gerring, Larry Keigwin, Michael Kliën, Pontus Lidberg, Lil Buck, Lar Lubovitch, Josie Moseley, Richard Move, Bulareyaung Pagarlava, Annie-B Parson, Yvonne Rainer, Sonya Tayeh, Doug Varone, Luca Vegetti, Gwen Welliver and Robert Wilson.

The current company dancers hail from around the world and, while grounded in their Graham core training, can also slip into the style of contemporary choreographers like a second skin, bringing technical brilliance and artistic nuance to all they do–from brand new works to Graham classics and those from early pioneers such as Isadora Duncan, Jane Dudley, Anna Sokolow, and Mary Wigman. “Some of the most skilled and powerful dancers you can ever hope to see,” according to the Washington Post last year. “One of the great companies of the world,” says The New York Times, while Los Angeles Times notes, “They seem able to do anything, and to make it look easy as well as poetic.”