La Jornada: The Martha Graham company turns 100 with a living and evolving legacy

In New York City, in April 1926, the American dancer Martha Graham took the stage accompanied by three dancers, giving rise to her contemporary dance company, which this year celebrates its centenary with a national and international tour, new productions and exhibitions.

As a choreographer, Martha Graham (1894-1991) was as prolific as she was complex. He created 181 pieces and a technique that has been compared to ballet for its scope and magnitude. His approach to dance and theater revolutionized the art form, and his innovative physical vocabulary has decisively influenced that discipline on a global scale.

Since its creation in 1926, the Martha Graham Dance Company has been a leader in the evolution of modern dance and is one of the oldest groups in the United States.

On the page https://marthagraham.org/ it is reported that presentations, new productions, publications, educational activities, as well as exhibitions and film screenings have been organized to mark the company’s centenary.

In recent years, the company has defied expectations and experimented with different offerings beyond its core repertoire. Choreographers such as Kyle Abraham, Aszure Barton, Baye & Asa, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Marie Chouinard, Michelle Dorrance, Nacho Duato, Mats Ek, Andonis Foniadakis, Liz Gerring, Larry Keigwin and Michael Kliën have collaborated with her.

As well as Richard Move, Bulareyaung Pagarlava, Annie-B Parson, Yvonne Rainer, Jamar Roberts, Sonya Tayeh, Doug Varone, Luca Vegetti, Gwen Welliver and Robert Wilson.

The Martha Graham Company’s anniversary demonstrates that modern dance can endure, evolve and remain relevant for generations to come.

In its season at the New York City Center in April, the company presented three of Graham’s masterpieces, Night Journey (1947), Chronicle (1936, whose exceptional restoration is commissioned by City Center) and Appalachian Spring (1944), each featuring iconic scenic designs by sculptor Isamu Noguchi; The cheerful Diversion of Angels (1948).

In October, the group, directed by Janet Eilber, will perform at the Palacio de Bellas Artes with the program titled Martha Graham 100 years: The dance that transformed the 20th century.

Graham’s technique became the most famous, solid and international. In Mexico it was consolidated with Guillermina Bravo (1920-2013), who incorporated this method to the National Ballet.

“He gave a new approach to this art”

In interview with The Day, Choreographer Rossana Filomarino, who studied with Graham, assured that one of the American artist’s great achievements was giving another approach to dance.

“It opened the horizon towards man; they were difficult times, but psychoanalysis was carried out; Jung and Freud were there, and Martha thought from the side of art. She did not believe in the fables of ballet, but she needed a new way of moving the body, which is the technique that later resulted in an ordering of all the materials found for creation, to express the anxieties, the dreams of contemporary man, the differences, the political moments, the archetypes, everything that refers to man; it was the “first great advance in dance, and we owe that to her.”

He recalled: “I took some classes with Martha herself; she did not mark the exercise, that was done by the teacher on duty. She spoke to us students about what that movement meant and what it contributed to the knowledge of man, to research and, therefore, to the universe.”

He considered that the technique has changed, but the fundamental principles exist and are the important ones, on which other languages ​​can be built.

Filomarino commented that you can dance without knowing the technique, but he also stated that there is no training method as complete as Graham’s. “Its study requires seven or eight years to really take ownership of it. Of course there are ways to move around, and those who say that it is old-fashioned is because they don’t know how to do it well.”

The founder of Dramadanza shared that the work Diversion of Angels It has been memorable for her, because in that choreography she discovered the beauty of the technique.

“Graham has works of great content such as Medea, which was performed by Yuriko Kimura and she taught it to me. That work moved the rug for me, as they say.

“Another piece that impressed me was the solo that Martha did in Lamentation, where she appears sitting on a bench with a tight dress that covers her whole; She is like a prisoner inside that elastic tube. “It is fascinating how the smallest detail of movement can express so much.”

In the talk, the Italian-Mexican choreographer mentioned the fundamental drivers of the Graham technique: the use of the articulation of the pelvis and back with concentration and discharge of energy, which is called contraction and release; It is the act of breathing at its finest, he explained.

“The second is the principle of the spiral, where the line of the body is harmonized; the third is the systematization of the use of opposing forces, then there is the use of the floor as a level of dramatic action, it is the root from which all movement arises and to which it returns. The use of setback follows to elongate the same time.”

Possessor of an organic technique

The dancer and choreographer Beatriz Madrid, who demonstrated this technique in England, commented to this newspaper: “I believe that Martha’s most important legacy is the technique that has trained thousands of dancers and her way of creating a specific language for her work that later became her own technique.”

For her part, Gladiola Orozco, choreographer and founder of the defunct Ballet Teatro del Espacio company, indicated that the Graham technique is eminently organic, and she experienced it in her body.

“In 1957, David Wood, a dancer from Martha’s company, came for the first time, and with him we discovered that by knowing our pelvis, our body, we could understand how to move and how to move forward and develop in an intelligent and natural way.”

As part of the celebrations for the group’s centenary, the exhibition will be presented at the New York Public Library from May 20 to November 7. Martha Graham: The Mother of Psychological Dance, curated by Jack Ferver, which traces the artist’s career, focusing on her vision of dance as a psychological expression.

The exhibition will showcase rarely seen material from the Jerome Robbins Dance Division’s Martha Graham archive, sets by Isamu Noguchi and costumes by the creator, in addition to offering insight into the genius and legacy of Graham and her dance company.