A dance performance anywhere near the date of Sept. 11 is likely to invoke elements of grief, if not wholly immerse itself in unbridled lamentation. The Martha Graham Dance Company’s 2007 New York season at the Joyce Theater, which opened on Tuesday and closes on Sept. 23, grazes the theme of the date but dwells primarily on the human ability to persevere and the will to conquer.
The season, which marks the 80th anniversary of the Graham Company, is laden with classic pieces from the Martha Graham repertoire—notably Cave of the Heart, a “psychological study of the destructive powers of love” based on Euripides’ Medea that premiered at Columbia in 1946, as well as Diversions of Angels (1948) and Sketches from Chronicle (1936).
Diversions of Angels, the opening piece from Wednesday’s performance, “takes its themes from the infinite aspects of love,” according to the program notes. At times overly ebullient, with its chorus of dancers rejoicing in the budding love of an adolescent couple and the committed love of a more mature couple, the piece showcases Graham’s unparalleled ability to equally depict all aspects of human existence. While modern dance progressively seems to be an art which revolves around humanity’s failings and insecurities, the Graham Company displays dance’s ability to portray the emotional highs that life can bring. In particular, Katherine Crockett, a principal dancer, entranced the audience with her steady, seductive dance as a temptress in “the imaginary garden love creates for itself.” Exuding nobility and poise as she twisted into Graham’s trademark angular movements, she effortlessly manifested the confidence and ease with which love imbues its subjects. Despite the piece’s overwhelmingly balletic style and structure, the dancers retained a hold on Graham’s signature emotional depth and individuality.
The centerpiece of Wednesday night’s performance, Sketches from Chronicle, was inspired by Graham’s reaction to “the menace of fascism in Europe” with the intent of universalizing “the tragedy of war.” Divided into three portions, the piece reflects “the fateful prelude to war, ... the devastation of spirit which it leaves in its wake and suggest[ion] of an answer”.
The piece’s first movement shocked the audience, with its dramatic use of rich red and black color, as principal dancer Jennifer DePalo brandished her dress in angst-ridden gyrations. DePalo craftily executed not only superb technique but a true internalization of the piece’s emotions, as her face and mannerisms told a story of exhaustion by way of confusion and grief. However, DePalo reemerged in the third movement re-energized, uniting with a chorus of dancers and guiding them rhythmically into a dance of unbridled determination.
If the Graham Company’s current season instills anything in the mind of the dance enthusiast, it should be the value of emotional range in a choreographer’s corpus and the ultimate importance of emotional vulnerability within a dancer. Additionally, Graham’s genius ability to rework classic Greek tragedy into tangible tangos of human conflict will illuminate the everlasting wisdom and applicability of such works. Graham’s season may in fact be the best inadvertent donation campaign for the under-funded and under-appreciated world of modern dance yet.
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