Martha Graham Dance Company: Dance is a Weapon

Saturday night I was fortunate enough to see the Martha Graham Dance Company perform at the SF Jewish Community Center.  I had never seen the Graham Company perform until last Saturday night, and before then I had only seen a performance of Lamentation.  The program was titled Dance is a Weapon, featuring work that dealt with choreography as a means to give agency to the oppressed or to act out against oppression.  The evening began with three solos from three different choreographers: Isadora Duncan, Eva Gentry, and Sophie Maslow.  Interspersed between these solos the audience was shown archival footage of the time of the creation of the work, primarily of the Great Depression and the New Dance Group.  The Duncan piece was the antithesis of the airy, ethereal quality that has come to define how she is remembered.  Instead it was intensely grounded and sharp, beautifully danced by Katherine Crockett, who looked statuesque in her red dress.  The Gentry and Maslow solos, the former created for a woman, the latter a man, were perfect foils for each other.  Gentry's Tenant of the Street depicted a female character completely disenfranchised of her identity.  She rarely lifts her head high enough to allow the audience to meet her gaze as she slowly carves her path through the heavily weighted stage.  Maslow's solo set to the music of Woody Guthrie, reminded me of the song "I Got Plenty o' Nothin'" from Porgy and Bess.  It was a man who has lost, and perhaps is lost, but is determined not to lose his voice.  

The first half of the program ended with Graham's Chronicle.  A show-stopping, jaw-dropping work that caused my friend Nataly to exclaim, "that melted my face," when it was over.  The ballet was influenced by the Great Depression and the Spanish Civil War and focuses on depression and isolation.  It opens with a stunning solo (above image) that uses the costume in inventive and dramatic ways comparable to Lamentation.  The following two sections are ensemble pieces that are incredibly demanding musically, technically, and I would guess, psychologically.  The work is as strong in form and structure as it is in emotional depth.

The second half of the program moved away from the theme of dance as a weapon to offer two works from very different times in Graham's career.  The first El Penitente from 1940 and the second Acts of Light from 1981.  El Penitente (above image)  tells the story of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection within the context of Native American inspired dance and storytelling.  The ballet is presented as if three actors have entered a community and are sharing a story.  It is an interesting and enjoyable take on the most famous story of Western civilization.  I was particularly touched by the idea of offering the story in such a folkloric manner, making it akin to the creation stories of Native American cultures.

The program ended with Acts of Light or as I've come to think of it, "All Things Graham" (or maybe the Grahamathon).  It is a celebration of the rituals dancers go through to become dancers ( a la the beginning of Balanchine's Serenade) told through Graham technique and exercises with the dancers in gold unitards.  It was very enjoyable to watch especially as a Graham novice.  In San Francisco, release technique reigns supreme, so it was genuinely refreshing to see modern dance technique performed with a specific port de bras and placement.  The dancers seemed inhibited by the shallowness of the stage, and those unitards reveal every inaccuracy, but overall it was a handsome ending to a wonderful evening.