MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY

The Martha Graham Dance Company, in its third year of  centennial celebration, showcased its amazing dancers in four unique works in Program A during their two-week run at the Joyce Theater. 

Graham, known as one of the giants of choreography, was also a master teacher and philosopher.  We witnessed her ethos continuing, embodied in Artistic Director, Janet Eilber, as she opened the show with a heartfelt welcome. Eilber offered insight into the choreography, drawing the audience into the imaginative vision behind the work as well as her programming choices. 

A Graham classic, Clytemnestra (1958) (Act 2), opened the evening. One of her Greek tragedies, it shows her technique at its clearest and most impeccable with a compelling set by long time collaborator Isamu Noguchi, and an outstanding cast: Leslie Andrea Williams, Jai Perez,Richard Villaverde, Laurel Dalley Smith, Antonio Leone, Meagan King, Devin Loh, Amanda Moreira. The dance is full of big feelings: remorse, revenge, despair, haunted dreams, adultery, and murder as only Graham, in operatic fashion, can express.

Cortege (World Premiere) by choreographers Baye and Asa, was inspired by Graham’s Cortege of Eagles (1967), another Greek tragedy about the carnage of the Trojan War.  Now modernized, it comments on the aggression and effects of war on the collective.  The piece begins dramatically, with eight dancers in single file on their knees, covered over with a black fabric sheath, perhaps signifying the underworld or the grave. The sheath is quickly removed and is replaced by dim, dark lighting. Dancers move through many group vignettes, showing sorrow, aggressive conflict, persecution, agony, all in the shadows. The sound of chains clanking continues as each dancer proceeds to don a white vest (armor?),  and eventually align together in group cohesion, as if taking responsibility for the futility of war. Ultimately, they end in the original line, partially covered over again with the sheath, before the lights go out. Outstanding dancing carries the message– does the futility of war ever change?

Letter to Nobody, created and performed by the stunning Xin Ying, in collaboration with Mimi Yin, is a unique and poignant solo about the body and soul of a dancer; her dependence on the choreographer and character or role she embodies. 

Xin enters the stage in a flowing gown (Karen Young, costumer), that replicates the dress worn by Graham in the 1940 work, Letter to the World. Sections of the original piece are visited through a projected archival video showing  Graham turning and turning, her dress flowing, then sitting on a low bench.  Xin turns and turns as well, mirroring her mentor in real time. On the video, a group of male and female dancers parade on the screen (a young Merce Cunningham and Erick Hawkins among them) as the Emily Dickinson poem is heard:  “I’m Nobody! Who Are You? Are You Nobody too? Then there’s the pair of us!”  Xin mimics the steps. learning the choreography.  

A final video of Graham in her dressing room addressing her audience appears on screen as she describes the “transformation a dancer must undergo to become a character she recognizes as herself.” As Xin drops her skirt to the floor, she appears in silhouette–naked and alone. She turns to the audience, slowly sinking to the ground in an ever widening leg split, as if to say, “When the dance is over, I am nothing, an empty vessel,  without my art and my dance.” 

Cave (2022), a tour de force by choreographer Hofesh Shechter, is community dance.  Fourteen dancers move in and out of light, to pounding, primal rhythms. Are we looking at an ancient tribe dancing to the sun, or worshipping the moon, or are we in a modern day club watching the competitions inside a group circle, or sexual ritual? Are we watching Irish step dancing? Are we watching hip hop? A rave? All dance flashes before our eyes in this exhilarating experience. It’s pure fearless energy, supporting and feeding itself; expressing hunger to live, power of the community, freedom, and everything in-between. It’s the miracle of the life force itself. 

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Mary Seidman