THE EARLY SOLOS
Martha Graham burst on the cultural scene of America with
theatrical innovations that revolutionized every area of the arts. This radical
shift in the American aesthetic is revealed in this group of seminal solos that
Graham danced in those formative years. We begin with a solo that Martha Graham
learned as a student and that represents the decorative style she would soon
reject. The works that follow chart her stunning, stark, and dramatic new
approach to movement and theater.
Serenata Morisca
(1916)
A sort of
sensual “serenade” performed by the favorite of a king or Shah, this solo,
choreographed by Ted Shawn, is a classic example of Denishawn orientalist style
and early American modern dance. Graham immediately attracted attention in the
early 1920s while dancing this solo in her first professional appearances.
Alessandra Prosperi
•
Lamentation
(1930)
This now iconic solo
holds the essence of the Graham innovations – pure emotion expressed through
her visceral movement style and a pioneering use of fabric and stage design. Lamentation is a “dance of sorrows.” It
is not the sorrow of a specific person, time, or place, but the personification
of grief itself.
Heidi Stoeckley
•
Satyric Festival Song
(1932)
In this wry, witty solo, Graham mocked her
own serious image and exhibited a new range of emotions. In a sculptural
costume which accentuates the body’s message, the performer lectures, teases
and laughs with the audience – all through her gestures and attitude.
Fang-Yi Sheu
•
Deep Song
(1937)
Graham’s works were increasingly connected
to the events and psychology of her times. This classic lament, created in
reaction to the oppression of the Spanish Civil War, transcends its inspiration
and evokes the suffering of any era.
Elizabeth Auclair
•
Serenata Morisca: Choreography by Martha Graham after Ted
Shawn • Costume by Martha Graham after Pearl Wheeler • Music by Mario Tarenghi
(Serenata, op.13), adapted by Jonathan McPhee • Lighting by Thomas
Skelton. Premiere: 1916. Performed by Martha Graham on Denishawn tours
1921–1923 and in the Greenwich Village Follies 1923–1925.
Lamentation: Choreography and costume by Martha Graham • Music by Zoltán
Kodály (Neun Klavierstücke,
Opus 3, Number 2) • Original lighting by Martha Graham, adapted by Beverly Emmons. Premiere: January 8,
1930, Maxine Elliott’s Theatre, New York City. This presentation of Lamentation has been made possible
by a gift from Francis Mason in honor of William D. Witter. Additional support
was provided by the Harkness Foundation for Dance.
Satyric Festival Song: Choreography and costume
by Martha Graham • Original music by Imre Weisshaus; music for
reconstruction by Fernando Palacios (Minuta perversa, used by special
arrangement with Fernando Palacios) • Lighting for reconstruction by David
Finley. Premiere: November 20, 1932, Guild Theatre, New York City. Satyric
Festival Song was reconstructed in 1994 by Diane Gray and Janet Eilber.
Deep Song: Choreography and costume
by Martha Graham • Music by Henry Cowell (Sinister Resonance, used by
arrangement with Associated Music Publishers, Inc., publisher and copyright
owner) • Recorded by Patrick Daugherty • Lighting for reconstruction by David
Finley. Premiere: December 19, 1937, Guild Theatre, New York City.
CAVE OF THE HEART
Choreography and Costumes by Martha Graham
Music by Samuel Barber†
Set by Isamu Noguchi
Original lighting by Jean Rosenthal
Adapted by Beverly Emmons
Premiere: May 10, 1946, Columbia University,
New York City
Cave of the Heart is a
study of the destructive powers of love, the dark passions that guard the human
heart, coiled like a serpent ready to strike when attacked. In the myth, Medea,
a sorceress, falls in love with Jason and uses her magical powers to help him
gain the Golden Fleece. Sacrificing all that is dear to her, she flees with him
to Corinth. But Jason is ambitious and abandons Medea. Betrayed and exiled,
Medea plots a course that will end with the death of her rival, the Princess,
and the murder of her own two children. The Chorus, foreseeing the tragedy
about to be enacted, tries to prevent it, and suffers its deepest meaning.
The
Sorceress, Medea Miki Orihara
Jason Tadej Brdnik
The
Princess, Creon’s Daughter Jennifer DePalo-Rivera
The
Chorus Katherine Crockett
Originally
commissioned by the Alice N. Ditson Fund, Columbia University.
†Medea, Opus 23, used by
arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc., publisher and copyright owner.
INTERMISSION
STEPS IN THE STREET
from Chronicle
Choreography
and Costumes by Martha Graham
Music by Wallingford
Riegger†
Original
lighting by Jean Rosenthal
Lighting for
reconstruction by David Finley
Premiere:
December 20, 1936, Guild Theatre, New York City
Chronicle does not attempt to show the actualities of
war; rather, by evoking war’s images, it sets forth the fateful prelude to war,
portrays the devastation of spirit which it leaves in its wake, and suggests an
answer. (Original program note)
Devastation—
Homelessness—Exile
Miki Orihara
Catherine
Cabeen Katherine Crockett Jennifer DePalo-Rivera
Carrie
Ellmore-Tallitsch Catherine
Lutton Brenda Nieto
Alessandra
Prosperi Sadira Smith Heidi Stoeckley Natalie Turner
‘Steps
in the Street’ reconstructed by Yuriko and Martha Graham from the Julien Bryan
film.
†Finale from New Dance,
Opus 18b, used by arrangement with Associated Music Publishers, Inc., publisher
and copyright owner.
ACTS OF LIGHT
Choreography by
Martha Graham
Music by Carl Nielsen†
Costumes by Halston
and Martha Graham
Lighting by Beverly
Emmons
Premiere: February 26, 1981, John F. Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC
“Thank you for all the beautiful acts of light which
beautified a summer now past to its reward.” – Emily Dickinson
I. Conversation of
Lovers
Fang-Yi Sheu Maurizio Nardi
II. Lament
Virginie Mécène
Tadej Brdnik Christophe Jeannot Martin Lofsnes David Zurak
III. Ritual to the
Sun
Chief Celebrants Fang-Yi Sheu, Maurizio Nardi
Elizabeth
Auclair Tadej Brdnik Catherine Cabeen Jennifer DePalo-Rivera
Carrie
Ellmore-Tallitsch Christophe
Jeannot Lloyd Knight Martin Lofsnes
Catherine Lutton Brenda Nieto Miki Orihara Alessandra
Prosperi
Sadira Smith Heidi Stoeckley Natalie Turner David
Zurak
†
I. Pan
and Syrinx, Op.49; II. Andante lamentoso (At the Bier of a Young
Artist); III. Helios Overture, Op.17. Recorded by the Danish
Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Herbert Blomstedt, courtesy of EMI
Classics. I and II used by arrangeent with G. Schirmer, Inc., agents in the
United States for Edition Wilhelm Hansen A/S-Denmark, publisher and copyright
owner.
NOTES ON THE
REPERTORY
SERENATA MORISCA (1916)
In 1916, claiming that at
twenty-two her new pupil was too old to ever become a good dancer, Ruth St.
Denis took little interest in Martha Graham. It was St. Denis’ partner, Ted
Shawn, who took on Martha’s early training, after being astonished by the
ferocity of her performance in a classroom exercise he developed, the solo Serenata
Morisca.
The dance is a sort of sensual
“serenade” performed by the favorite of a king or Shah of some unspecified
country and is a classic example of Denishawn orientalist style and early
American modern dance. The steps have no ethnic authenticity. They are Shawn
being exotic and what he called “barbaric”, with overtones of East Indian
technique. The costume is a voluminous sheer purple skirt with a bejeweled hem
and bodice. The dancer’s ankles are encircled with bells, and a large red
flower sits behind her ear. She is arrogant, self confident, elegant, and sensual,
dancing as much for her own pleasure as for the King’s. Graham performed the
solo on Denishawn tours 1921–23 and in the Greenwich Village Follies 1923–25.
LAMENTATION (1930)
Lamentation premiered in New York City on January 8,
1930, at Maxine Elliot’s Theater, to music by the Hungarian composer Zoltán
Kodály. The dance is performed almost entirely from a seated position, with the
dancer encased in a tube of purple jersey. The diagonals and tensions formed by
the dancer’s body struggling within the material create a moving sculpture, a
portrait which presents the very essence of grief. The figure in this dance is
neither human nor animal, neither male nor female: it is grief itself.
According to Martha Graham, after one
performance of the work she was visited by a woman in the audience who had
recently seen her child killed in an accident. Viewing Lamentation enabled her to grieve, as she realized that “grief was
a dignified and valid emotion and that I could yield to it without shame.”
SATYRIC FESTIVAL SONG (1932)
Satyric Festival Song premiered in 1932 at the Guild Theater in
New York City, part of a suite of solo dances entitled Dance Songs. The
dance was inspired by American Indian Pueblo culture and the clowns who
satirize and mock the sacred rituals. Set to a score by Imre Weisshaus, with a
costume designed by Martha Graham, the dance disappeared from the repertory for
many years and was best known through the series of photographs published in
Barbara Morgan’s 1942 book on Martha Graham. It was reconstructed by Diane Grey
and Janet Eilber in 1994, to music by Fernando Palacios, for a season at the
Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.
DEEP SONG (1937)
Deep Song premiered at the Guild Theater in New York in 1937. Set to music by
Henry Cowell, the dance was composed in response to the Spanish Civil War. Deep
Song was a cry of anguish, an embodiment of Martha Graham’s fears for a
world torn apart by man’s inhumanity to man. “The fierce, fighting anguish of Deep
Song is as direct and as objective as a shout,” wrote one critic.
According to program notes, “the forms of the
dance – its swirls, crawls on the floor, contractions and falls – are kinetic
experiences of the human experiences in war. . . It is the anatomy of anguish
from tragic events.” The tragedy of Spain is universalized through the
choreography. “It is not Spain that we see in her clean impassioned movement;
it is the realization that Spain’s tragedy is ours, is the whole world’s
tragedy.” The dance disappeared from the repertory in the 1940s, and it was not
until 1989 that it was reconstructed by Graham with Terese Capucilli.
CAVE OF THE HEART
(1946)
Premiered at Columbia University in 1946 and originally
entitled Serpent Heart, this dance is a psychological study of the
destructive powers of love, the dark passions that guard the human heart,
coiled like a serpent ready to strike when attacked. Medea, princess of the
kingdom of Colchis, was known as a sorceress. Pierced by Cupid’s bow, she fell
in love with the adventurer Jason and used her magical powers to help him gain
the Golden Fleece. Sacrificing all that was dear to her, she fled with him to
his home in the kingdom of Corinth, where they lived as man and wife and had
two small children. But Jason was ambitious, and when offered the Princess of
Corinth in marriage, he abandoned Medea. This is the moment in which Martha
Graham’s dance begins. Betrayed and exiled from her home, Medea plots a course
that will end with the death of her rival, the Princess, and the murder of her
own two children. The Chorus, foreseeing the tragedy about to be enacted, tries
to prevent it, and suffers its unfolding. Graham’s dance confronts us with the
horror of a woman betrayed, so crazed by vengeance that she commits the
unthinkable, the murder not only of her lover’s new wife, but of her own
children. She is the most detestable of beings, but she is not alien to us. In
her exploration of these dark and primal passions Graham reveals the full range
of what it is to be human. Ultimately this is a dance of transformation, as the
Sorceress (Medea), cleansed by flames, is returned to her father the Sun.
STEPS IN THE STREET
(FROM ‘CHRONICLE’) (1936)
Chronicle premiered at the Guild Theater in New York
City on December 20, 1936. The dance was a response to the menace of fascism in
Europe; earlier that year, Graham had refused an invitation to take part in the
1936 Olympic Games in Germany, stating: “I would find it impossible to dance in
Germany at the present time. So many artists that I know and respect have been
persecuted, have been deprived of the right to work for ridiculous and
unsatisfactory reasons, that I should consider it impossible to identify
myself, by accepting the invitation, with the regime that has made such things
possible. In addition, some of my concert group would not be welcomed in
Germany” (a reference to the fact that many members of her group were Jewish).
According to the original program note, “Chronicle does not attempt to
show the actualities of war; rather does it, by evoking war’s images, set forth
the fateful prelude to war, portray the devastation of spirit which it leaves
in its wake, and suggest an answer.” This is one of the very few dances Martha
Graham made which can be said to express explicitly political ideas, but,
unlike Immediate Tragedy (1937) and Deep Song (1937), dances she
made in response to the Spanish Civil War, this dance is not a realistic
depiction of events. The intent is to universalize the tragedy of war. The
original dance, with a score by Wallingford Riegger, was forty minutes in
length, divided into three sections: “Dances before Catastrophe – Spectre 1914
and Masque,” “Dances after Catastrophe – Steps in the Street and Tragic
Holiday,” and “Prelude to Action.” The Company has reconstructed and now
performs “Spectre 1914,” “Steps in the Street” and “Prelude to Action.”
ACTS OF LIGHT (1981)
Acts of Light
premiered in Washington DC at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts on February 26, 1981. Taking its title from a phrase by Emily Dickinson, a
poet beloved by Graham, the dance introduced a new period in Graham’s work.
Devoid of theatrical trappings, Acts of Light celebrates the dancer as
an exquisite instrument of expression, while making references to earlier works
in the Graham canon. Former New York Times dance critic Anna Kisselgoff
called the work neo-classical. The score for the ballet is by the 19th-century
Danish composer Carl Nielsen – another divergence for Graham, who typically
sought out contemporary composers for her work. Composed in three sections, the
dance begins with “Conversation of Lovers,” a duet exploring the constant, yet
ever-changing, ties that exist between lovers. The music for the second
section, “Lament,” was composed by Nielsen in response to the death of a
friend. Graham made a dance for a solo female figure surrounded by five male
witnesses. The body of the woman in encased in an elastic white fabric.
According to one critic, the fabric acted as a “membrane…abstracting the shapes
of grief [the dancer’s] body makes.” The reference to Graham’s own 1930 Lamentation
is clear. “Ritual to the Sun,” the final section, is an ode to the
Graham classroom technique.
ABOUT
MARTHA GRAHAM
Martha Graham is recognized as a
primal artistic force of the 20th century, alongside Picasso, James Joyce,
Stravinsky, and Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1998, TIME Magazine named Martha
Graham as the “Dancer of the Century”, and People Magazine named her
among the female “Icons of the Century”. As a choreographer, she was as
prolific as she was complex. She created 181 ballets and a dance technique that
has been compared to ballet in its scope and magnitude. Many great modern and
ballet choreographers have studied the Martha Graham Technique or have been
members of her company.
Martha Graham’s extraordinary
artistic legacy has often been compared to Stanislavsky’s Art Theatre in Moscow
and the Grand Kabuki Theatre of Japan for its diversity and breadth. Her legacy
is perpetuated in performance by the members of the Martha Graham Dance Company
and Martha Graham Ensemble, and by the students of the Martha Graham School of
Contemporary Dance.
In 1926, Martha Graham founded
her dance company and school, living and working out of a tiny Carnegie Hall
studio in midtown Manhattan. In developing her technique, she experimented
endlessly with basic human movement, beginning with the most elemental
movements of contraction and release. Using these principles as the foundation
for her technique, she built a vocabulary of movement that would “increase the
emotional activity of the dancer’s body.” Martha Graham’s dancing and
choreography exposed the depths of human emotion through movements that were
sharp, angular, jagged, and direct. The dance world was forever altered by
Martha Graham’s vision, which has been and continues to be a source of
inspiration for generations of dance and theatre artists.
Martha Graham’s ballets were
inspired by a wide variety of sources, including modern painting, the American
frontier, religious ceremonies of Native Americans, and Greek mythology. Many
of her most important roles portray great women of history and mythology:
Clytemnestra, Jocasta, Medea, Phaedra, Joan of Arc, and Emily Dickinson.
As an artist, Martha Graham
conceived each new work in its entirety – dance, costumes, and music. During
her 70 years of creating dances, Martha Graham collaborated with such artists
as sculptor Isamu Noguchi; actor and director John Houseman; fashion designers
Halston, Donna Karan and Calvin Klein; and renowned composers including Aaron
Copland, Louis Horst (her mentor), Samuel Barber, William Schuman, Carlos
Surinach, Norman Dello Joio, and Gian Carlo Menotti. Her company was the
training ground for many future modern choreographers, including Merce
Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and Twyla Tharp. She created roles for classical
ballet stars such as Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, and Mikhail Baryshnikov,
welcoming them as guests into her company. In charge of movement and dance at
the Neighborhood Playhouse, she taught actors, including Bette Davis, Kirk
Douglas, Madonna, Liza Minnelli, Gregory Peck, Tony Randall, Anne Jackson, and
Joanne Woodward, how to use the body as an expressive instrument.
Her uniquely American vision and
creative genius earned her numerous honors and awards, such as the Laurel Leaf
of the American Composers Alliance in 1959 for her service to music and the
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local One 1986 Centennial
Award for dance, not to be awarded again for another hundred years. In 1976, President
Gerald R. Ford declared Martha Graham a “national treasure” and bestowed upon
her the United States’ highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom, making her
the first dancer and choreographer to receive this honor. Another Presidential
honor was awarded Martha Graham in 1985 when President Ronald Reagan designated
her among the first recipients of the United States National Medal of Arts.
ABOUT
THE COMPANY
Founded in 1926 by dancer and
choreographer Martha Graham, the Martha Graham Dance Company is the oldest and
most celebrated contemporary dance company in America.
Since its inception, the Martha
Graham Dance 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 the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie
Hall, the Paris Opera House, Covent Garden, and the John F. Kennedy Center for
the Performing Arts, as well as at the base of the Great Pyramids of Egypt and
in the ancient Herod Atticus Theatre on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. In
addition, the Company has also produced several award-winning films broadcast
on PBS and around the world.
Martha Graham choreographed 181
works in her lifetime. Among these are such well- known ballets as Heretic
(1929), Lamentation (1930), Primitive Mysteries (1931), Frontier
(1935), Deep Song (1937), El Penitente (1940), Letter to the
World (1940), Deaths and Entrances (1943), Appalachian Spring
(1944), Cave of the Heart (1946), Errand into the Maze (1947), Night
Journey (1947), Diversion of Angels (1948), Seraphic Dialogue
(1955), Clytemnestra (1958), Embattled Garden (1958), Phaedra
(1962), Frescoes (1978), Acts of Light (1981), The Rite of
Spring (1984), Temptations of the Moon (1986), and Maple Leaf Rag
(1990).
Though Martha Graham herself is
the best-known alumna of her company, having danced from the Company’s
inception until the late 1960s, the Company has provided a training ground for
some of modern dance’s most illustrious performers and choreographers. Former
members of the Company include Merce Cunningham, Erick Hawkins, Pearl Lang,
Elisa Monte, Paul Taylor, Glen Tetley, Jacqulyn Buglisi, Donlin Foreman, and
Pascal Rioult. Among celebrities who have joined the Company in performance are
Mikhail Baryshnikov, Claire Bloom, Margot Fonteyn, Liza Minnelli, Rudolf
Nureyev, Maya Plisetskaya, and Kathleen Turner. The Martha Graham Dance Company
has commissioned works from Twyla Tharp, Robert Wilson, Susan Stroman, Lucinda
Childs, and Maurice Béjart, which have been enthusiastically received by
audiences and critics worldwide. The Martha Graham Dance Company even numbers
among its alumnae one Betty Bloomer, who, after dancing with the Company in
1938, became better known as First Lady Betty Ford.
Acknowledged as “one of the great
companies of the world” by Anna Kisselgoff, former chief dance critic of the New
York Times, the Martha Graham Dance Company has been lauded by critics
throughout the world. Alan M. Kriegsman of the Washington Post referred
to the Company as “one of the seven wonders of the artistic universe,” while Los
Angeles Times critic Martin Bernheimer noted, “They seem able to do
anything, and to make it look easy as well as poetic.” Ismene Brown of he Daily
Telegraph, London, touted the Martha Graham Dance Company’s performance as
“Unmissable,” and for Donald Richie of the Japan Times, these dancers
were “Graham’s perfect instrument.”
BIOGRAPHIES
JANET EILBER (Martha
Graham Center Artistic Director) started performing with the Martha Graham
Dance Company in 1972 while still a student at the Juilliard School. During the
next several years, she and Martha Graham developed such a close working
relationship that Ms Graham created roles for Ms Eilber in almost
every one of her new works, reconstructed her seminal solos Lamentation
and Frontier for her, and coached her in some of the great roles of the
Graham repertoire including St. Joan, the Virgin in Primitive Mysteries,
Mary Queen of Scots, Cassandra, Jocasta, Phaedra, and many others. As a
principal dancer with the Company, Ms Eilber performed on all tours, on
Broadway and at the Metropolitan Opera House, and starred in three programs for
Dance in America. She soloed twice at the White House and was partnered
by Rudolph Nureyev in The Scarlet Letter and Lucifer, roles
created for her by Ms Graham. During the 1980s and 1990s, while pursuing
an active acting career, Ms Eilber often returned to be a guest artist
with the Company, assisted in the reconstruction of Satyric Festival Song,
and staged Graham ballets for the Paris Opera Ballet and the Dutch National
Ballet, among others. On Broadway, she was a guest star with the American Dance
Machine and starred in their Showtime special with Gwen Verdon. She starred in
Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ and Stepping Out, directed by Tommy Tune
(1987 Drama Desk nomination). Her film credits include Whose Life Is it,
Anyway?, Romantic Comedy, Antigone, and Hard to Hold.
She has starred in two TV series and in a variety of guest appearances from Hitchcock
to Columbo. Her own choreography has been performed by the Los Angeles
Chamber Ballet, many Los Angeles theater productions, and with Charles Dutoit
conducting members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. She is Co-Founder of the
American Repertory Dance Company and has received four Lester Horton Awards for
her work with ARDC. Ms Eilber is also principal arts consultant to the
Dana Foundation and a Trustee of the Interlochen Center for the Arts. She is
married to screenwriter/director John Warren, with whom she has two daughters,
Madeline and Eva.
ELIZABETH AUCLAIR (Principal Dancer), from Massachusetts,
received her early dance training with scholarships at the Alvin Ailey School
and the Martha Graham School. She has performed with such companies as Alvin
Ailey American Dance Theater, City Contemporary Dance Co. (Hong Kong), and the
companies of Pearl Lang, Jean Erdman, Sasha Spielvogel, Erica Dankmeyer, Pascal
Rioult, and Sandra Kaufmann. Her teaching credits include Lehman College,
Marymount Manhattan College, University of Wyoming, CAP 21 Conservatory, Boston
Conservatory, Oklahoma Arts Institute, School of Toronto Dance Theater, Alvin
Ailey School, and the Martha Graham School, where she also served as Associate
Director of the Martha Graham Ensemble. She has assisted in setting the works
of Martha Graham on the Het National Ballet, Ballet do Rio de Janeiro and the
Boston Conservatory. Ms Auclair joined the Graham Company in 1993.
TADEJ BRDNIK (Principal
Dancer) began his professional dance career in Slovenia. Since moving to New
York, he has danced with Coyote Dancers, Battery Dance Company, Avila/Weeks
Dance, White Oak Dance Project, Robert Wilson, and Pick Up Performance Company,
as well as in works of Maurice Béjart, Lucinda Childs, Yvonne Rainer, Susan Stroman,
Steve Paxton, and Deborah Hay, among others. He has taught extensively in the
United States, Slovenia, the UK, and Scandinavia and is on faculty of the
Martha Graham School, where he also directs the Young Artists Program. He is a
recipient of the Benetton Dance Award and the Eugene Loring Award and a grant
given by the Ministry of Culture of Slovenia. He has been with the Martha
Graham Dance Company since 1996.
KATHERINE CROCKETT (Principal
Dancer) attended Ballet Metropolitan, SUNY Purchase, and the Martha Graham
School before joining the Company in 1993. A Soloist in 1994, she became a
Principal Dancer in 1996, starring in works of Robert Wilson, Lucinda Childs,
and Susan Stroman, in Richard Move’s Achilles Heels with Mikhail
Baryshnikov, and Placido Domingo’s Aida. Her performance of Lamentation
was filmed for the BBC and was featured by Vanessa Redgrave in the “Return
Festival” in Kosovo. She also performs with Richard Move nationwide in Martha@.
GARY GALBRAITH (Principal
Dancer) has danced many of the lead roles in the Martha Graham Dance Company’s
repertory as well as those of the company’s guest choreographers. He has been a
guest artist with the state modern dance company of Turkey and other heralded
companies, as well as at several international festivals. His groundbreaking
Internet2 dance Kinetic Shadows, a simultaneous two-site work that had a
transcontinental premiere, was a finalist in the Northern Ohio Live Awards,
2003.
MARTIN LOFSNES (Principal
Dancer) received his dance training in Norway (Kirsti Skullerud and Øyvind
Jørgensen), at the London Contemporary Dance School (Ronald Emblen and Clover
Roope), and in New York at the Alvin Ailey School and the Graham School.
Mr Lofsnes joined the Graham Company in 1993. He has also performed in
Matthew Bourne/AMP’s Broadway production of Swan Lake and has worked
with Maurice Béjart, Pearl Lang, Richard Move/Martha@, Errol Grimes,
Labyrinth Dance Theater and Dankmeyer Dance. Mr Lofsnes has presented his
own work both in Europe and New York and is working on a collection of poetry.
He has taught extensively in Europe and the US including at SUNY Purchase,
Marymount Manhattan College, and the State College of Dance (Oslo, Norway) and
is on the faculties of the Ailey School and the Graham School.
MIKI ORIHARA (Principal
Dancer) joined the Company in 1987. She has performed with companies and
choreographers including Yuriko, The King and I on Broadway, Elisa
Monte, Jun Kono Dance Troup (Japan), Twyla Tharp, and Robert Wilson. She was a
special guest artist for Japan’s New National Theater in 2001. Her own works
have premiered in New York and Tokyo. Ms Orihara’s teaching includes
workshops in Japan, Arts International in Moscow, Peridance, the Ailey School,
New York University and Florida State University. She performs with
Buglisi/Foreman Dance and teaches at the Martha Graham School.
FANG-YI SHEU (Principal
Dancer), a native of Taiwan, received her BFA in dance from the National
Institute of the Arts in Taipei, where she studied Martha Graham Technique with
Ross Parkes. Ms Sheu received a full scholarship from the National
Endowment for Culture and Arts of Taiwan in 1994 and joined the Martha Graham
Dance Company in 1995. She was a principal dancer with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre
of Taiwan from 1998–2003 and also danced with Monte/Brown Dance Company,
Buglisi/ Foreman Dance and Shen-wei Dance Art.
CHRISTOPHE JEANNOT (Soloist)
is a native of France. He received a grant from the French Ministry of Culture
to study at the Martha Graham School in 1997. He later joined the Martha Graham
Ensemble and became a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1998.
VIRGINIE VICTOIRE MÉCÈNE (Soloist) joined the Company in 1994. Her roles include the Bride in Appalachian
Spring, Eve in Embattled Garden, Heretic, the lead in Maple Leaf
Rag, Lament in Acts of Light, the Woman in Red in Diversion of
Angels, the Maiden in Seraphic Dialogue, Circe, the Pussycat
in The Owl and the Pussycat and the younger Sister in Deaths and
Entrances. She has been a principal dancer with Buglisi/Foreman Dance,
Pearl Lang Dance Theater, Battery Dance Company, and others. She is on the
faculty of the Martha Graham School and teaches at the Ailey School and abroad.
Her choreography has been seen on the Joffrey Midwest Workshop, L’Opera Ballet
de Metz–France, the Singapore Dance Ensemble, the EFSD–NY and the Martha Graham
Dance Ensemble. She is presently a lecturer at Barnard College, NY.
ALESSANDRA PROSPERI (Soloist),
a native of Florence, Italy, moved to New York in 1986 with a scholarship granted
by Ms Graham. She joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1993. Her
roles include Errand into the Maze, Deep Song, El Penitente, Maple Leaf Rag,
Woman in Yellow & Red in Diversion of Angels, and the Warrior in Seraphic
Dialogue. Ms Prosperi has also worked with Ballet Hispanico,
Buglisi/Foreman, Pascal Rioult Dance Theater, Mark Morris Dance Group, CCDC in
Hong Kong, Joachim Schloemer in Europe, Errol Grimes, and Erica Dankmeyer.
Ms Prosperi is a certified yoga teacher and a Gyrotonic® and Pilates trainer.
CATHERINE CABEEN
(Dancer) received a Certificate of Dance from the Martha Graham School in 1998.
She has appeared with the Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company, the Martha
Graham Ensemble, Pearl Lang Dance Theater, Maher Benham’s Coyote Dancers,
Analysis Dance Company, and Harakti Multimedia. Her own choreography has been
seen in New York, Seattle, Boston, and Amsterdam.
ERICA DANKMEYER (Dancer),
originally from Northern California, earned her BA in art history at Williams
College, where she returns as a guest artist. She joined the Martha Graham
Dance Company in 1996 and is on the faculty of the Martha Graham School. She
produced the debut season of her own choreography at St. Mark’s Church in 2002.
JENNIFER DEPALO-RIVERA (Dancer)
returned to the Martha Graham Dance Company after a three-year leave, during
which she performed as a principal for Ballet Hispanico. She is also a
principal for Buglisi/Foreman Dance. Ms DePalo-Rivera is an honored
recipient of the Princess Grace Award for Artistic Excellence and is a
certified Gyrotonic® instructor at Studio Riverside.
CARRIE ELLMORE-TALLITSCH (Dancer) is from Virginia, where she began dancing. She graduated cum
laude from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Ms Ellmore-Tallitsch has danced with Dayton Contemporary Dance’s second
company, Philadanco, and Pascal Rioult Dance Theatre. This is her third season
with the Martha Graham Dance Company.
LLOYD KNIGHT (Dancer),
was born in England, reared in Miami, and trained at the Miami Conservatory of
Ballet. He received his BFA from the New World School of the Arts. Mr Knight worked with Robert Battle and
performed leading roles in Jose Limon’s There is a Time, Merce
Cunningham’s Inlets II, and Donald McKayle’s Rainbow Around my Shoulder.
CATHERINE LUTTON (Dancer)
received a BA from the University of California, Berkeley. She was awarded a
Coca Cola Scholarship in 2000 to begin training at the Martha Graham School.
She performed with the Martha Graham Ensemble and Pearl Lang Dance Theater. She
joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2002.
MAURIZIO NARDI (Dancer),
a native of Italy, came to New York with a scholarship at the Martha Graham
School in 1998, when he joined the Martha Graham Ensemble. He has performed and
collaborated with companies in the United States, Europe, and India. He made
his first appearance with the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2003.
BRENDA NIETO (Dancer)
is a native of Guanajuato, Mexico, where she trained at the University and
performed with Foro Libre. A student of Ballet Nacional de Mexico, she received
a government grant and a Coca Cola Scholarship for study at the Martha Graham
School. She has also performed with Nina Buisson Move.
SADIRA SMITH (Dancer),
born and raised in New York City, is a Jacobs Pillow Scholar and was a
scholarship student at the Martha Graham School. Ms Smith has worked with
the Paris Opera Ballet, Rosy Co. Contemporary Dance under Kota Yamazaki, the
Metropolitan Opera Theater with Julie Taymor and Mark Dendy, Buglisi/Foreman
Dance, and Shen Wei Dance Arts.
HEIDI STOECKLEY (Dancer),
originally from Oklahoma, trained at the Virginia School of the Arts and is a
2001 graduate of the Juilliard School, where she was awarded the Martha Hill
Prize, Highest Honors. She danced with the Martha Graham Ensemble and became a
member of the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2002.
YUKO SUZUKI (Dancer),
from Japan, joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2002. She has danced with
the Martha Graham Ensemble, Battery Dance Company, Lori Belilove & Company,
Dance Ensemble of Singapore, New York Theater Ballet, and Inoue Ballet (Tokyo)
and with various individual choreographers. Ms Suzuki is a certified
Gyrotonic® instructor at Studio Riverside.
NATALIE TURNER (Dancer), a native of Jamaica, attended the
Alvin Ailey School as a scholarship recipient. Ms Turner’s credits include
Ballet Hispanico, Elisa Monte Dance, the Times Square Millennium Show with
choreographer David Parsons, and the national tour of The King and I
(Eliza). She holds a BA in sociology
with a minor in dance from Emory University.
DAVID ZURAK (Dancer)
is a native of Toronto, Canada, where he completed a Bachelor of Electrical
Engineering degree and then began dance studies at the National Ballet School
and the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Professional engagements were followed
up with scholarship studies at the Merce Cunningham Studio and the Martha
Graham School. He is a former member of the Lucinda Childs Dance Company and
has appeared with Robert Wilson, Sean Curran, Richard Move, John Kelly and Cie
Felix Ruckert. He joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2002.
SUSAN KIKUCHI (Artistic Program Manager) was a member
of the Martha Graham Dance Company and has served as the director of the Martha
Graham Ensemble and the Martha Graham School. She has re-staged many Graham
works, often in collaboration with Yuriko. Broadway credits include The King and I, Pacific Overtures, Flower
Drum Song, South Pacific, and Jerome Robbins’ Broadway.
Ms Kikuchi was Choreographer, Resident Director, performer, and Dance
Captain for the 2004–05 TOTS national tour of The King and I.
MARTHA GRAHAM CENTER
OF CONTEMPORARY DANCE
Staff
Janet
Eilber, Artistic Director
Marvin
Preston IV, Executive Director
Aaron
Sherber, Music Director
Susan
Kikuchi, Artistic Program Manager
LaRue
Allen, General Manager
David
Pini, Company Manager
Melissa
Caolo, Production Stage Manager
Bevery
Emmons, Lighting Designer
Jim
French, Lighting Supervisor
Karen
Young, Costume Supervisor
Russell
Vogler, Wardrobe Manager
Jeffrey
Wirsing, Costume Design Advisor
Dixon
Van Winkle, Sound Consultant
Marnie
Thomas, Director of School
Ellen
Graff, Director of School Programs
Nancy
Lou Bright, Director of Finance and Administration
Laura
Raucher, Archivist
Regisseurs
Linda Hodes, Stuart Hodes, Peter London, Peggy Lyman, Miki
Orihara (asst.), Kenneth Topping, Yuriko
Board of Trustees
MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY