Trailblazing artistry, then and now
Martha Graham. The name is synonymous with modern dance in America, and as a trailblazer of culture itself. The legendary choreographer forged her own company and technique in 1928 in a Western artistic landscape that was dominated by classicism and an ethereal aesthetic. She sounded a mighty call of creative power that today echoes throughout the world and increases in its impact as it reaches new audiences and generations of dancers.
Graham’s work was rooted in raw emotionality and often in the American experiences of her time. Her sharp, angular and direct movements emerge from the body’s core, allowing her social and historical dramas to “embody the emotional jaggedness of life, both modern and eternal, and anything but neat,” said The New York Times in 2003. Her works marked a significant departure from the fairytale ballets familiar to audiences of the 20th century, and today represent a pinnacle of American artistic achievement.
Today, 27 years after Graham’s death at the age of 96, her Martha Graham Dance Company consistently reinvigorates her masterpieces through new interpretations and stagings, as they appear nationally and internationally to captive audiences. Building on Graham’s creative foundation, Artistic Director Janet Eilber maintains the company’s trailblazing spirit by commissioning vibrant new works from the world’s most daring contemporary choreographers. This summer, Vail audiences will experience both aspects of the Graham legacy: the enduring 1944 classic Appalachian Spring accompanied by the Breckenridge Festival Orchestra, new work by Bessie Award-winning choreographer Pam Tanowitz, and a collaborative new piece by acclaimed theater and dancemakers Maxine Doyle and Bobbi Jene Smith.
Appalachian Spring has been described as “quintessentially American” for its 19th century narrative of a Pennsylvanian newlywed couple building their first farmhouse together and for the bright, traveling score created by Pulitzer Prize winning American composer Aaron Copland. But what is “quintessentially American” goes beyond the promise of new beginnings. Just as Graham was unafraid to express the depths of human emotion, so too was she fearless in addressing challenging contemporary issues related to social, political, psychological and sexual themes. Created during and in response to World War II, Appalachian Spring was an affirmation of democratic values. In her original script for Copland, she spoke of ''a legend of American living'' that should ''by theatrical clarity, add up to a sense of place.''
Pam Tanowitz similarly creates dances in dialogue, though less explicitly in reference to social issues and more in tune to her artistic antecedents and the dancers she engages with directly in the studio. Tanowitz’s combination of wit, rigor, line and tenderness evoke master dance makers of the Graham lineage – Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown – through the weaving of movement, music and space. By contrast, Doyle and Smith are building more on the legacy of theater inherent in Graham. Their new work is built off of the myth of Demeter and Persephone, and harnesses an emotional movement language to tell a story, building a theatrical experience through dance.
It is fitting to have the Graham company back in Vail at the Ford Amphitheater as, in her youth, Mrs. Ford herself was a student of Graham. Her connection to the choreographer and the company remained throughout Mrs. Ford’s lifetime, and now Vail audiences will have the chance to continue that connection and experience one of the greatest dance companies in the world.
The Martha Graham Dance Company will perform on August 9 in a performance that will be a highlight of the 2019 season.