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.

SwInG dAnCe

After reading this recent article in the New York Times about this decade's swing dance revival happening around New York City, I was reminded of one of the greatest (swing) dance scenes in film--the backstage swing dance party in the film Hellzapoppin' from 1941.  It's a very entertaining movie, featuring one scene in particular that will knock your bobby-socks off.

This incredible scene showcases some of the most vivacious, exhilarating, and virtuosic partnering that, in my experience, makes every viewer want to get up and dance.  I can watch this clip over and over again and continue to feel excited.  I love partnering in any style of dance and this clip really feeds into those kinesthetic feelings of trust and generosity that is required when dancing with a partner.

Hands On/Off

This piece was my final for my group choreography class this past semester at Mills College.  In celebration of finishing my first semester of graduate school, and the stressful nature of the end of the semester, I wanted to create something that was fun and that dealt with things I love.  I started with the music--Otis Redding, Betty Harris, and Shirley Ellis--these are three of my favorite artists in one of my favorite musical genres, soul music of the 1950s and 1960s.  This work was also created out of the love I have for the people I dance with, specifically in this work, Jeanette Male, Elizabeth Morales, and Judene Small.  We had a lot of fun creating this and I hope you enjoy it.  Unfortunately the lighting was pretty low and at times it is difficult to see details.

Dream Roles

My birthday was this past Wednesday and in light of the celebration and introspection that comes with birthdays, I would like to share some of my dream roles.  The various roles in dances already created that I would love to dance.

The Bluebird Pas de Deux from Sleeping Beauty

Neither the choreography nor the role are particularly interesting in terms of great pas de deuxs in the classical ballet canon, but there is something about this role that attracts me.  Maybe it's the pure classicism of the choreography or perhaps the iconographic status of the pas de deux, either way it is a part I want to dance.

Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven by Ulysses Dove

I think Dove is one of the greatest under-rated choreographers.  His work is incredibly technically demanding and aesthetically stunning while still containing honest and interesting emotions and relationships, a challenge that very few contemporary ballet choreographers have been able to meet.  Danced to an evocative score by Arvo Part, Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven is one of my favorite ballets.

The Bronze Idol from La Bayadere

This is one of my all time favorite male variations.  The music, the costume, the choreography, I love it all.  It is difficult to believe that it's less than two minutes because every second packs a punch that makes it feel wholly realized and complete.

Afternoon of the Faun by Jerome Robbins

I think this is one of the best re-conceptualizations of an already famous ballet.  Nijinsky and the Ballets Russes made this ballet famous in 1912 in Paris, and Jerome Robbins created his own version in 1952 in NYC, changing the roles from Ancient Greece to the contemporary and having the dancers play dancers acting as though the fourth wall of the audience were a mirror in a dance studio.  It's brilliant.

Emeralds by George Balanchine

Emeralds (George Balanchine) from Ryan Wenzel on Vimeo.

Jewels is one of Balanchine's masterpieces, a non-narrative evening length work.  Emeralds is my favorite section of the ballet and I would be thrilled to dance any part in it.

Le sacre de printemps by Pina Bausch

I have a slight obsession with the history and continuing life of The Rite of Spring (more on that later), and this version is tied for first as my favorite choreography to match Stravinsky's beast of a score.  Bausch is known for using wild and at times outlandish sets in her work, and the simplicity of using soil in this work is so brilliant in its effectiveness and visibility in complementing the choreography.

In The Upper Room by Twyla Tharp

This is another one of my all time favorite works that I would relish the opportunity to dance.  This year marks the 25th anniversary of its creation and it has continued to maintain in repertory in companies all over the world.  I once read an interview with Ethan Stiefel who said that dancing this ballet was one of the greatest endurance tests of any ballet he has ever danced.  Bring it on.

Pina!

Pina Bausch is one of my favorite choreographers and I cannot wait to see this film.

Appalachia

I lived in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina for the last five years, and growing up in Chapel Hill, I would spend part of almost every summer as a child in the mountains with my family.  The Appalachian mountains have a rich cultural history in music and dance, amongst many other things.  Below is a clip from a documentary made in 1964 in Madison, NC, showing a community gathered in a home playing music and clogging.  Notice the how the rhythms of the dancers feet and the rhythm and melody created by the musicians play off each other, and the different partnering and floor patterns.

Appalachian clogging, like in this documentary, as well as Appalachian culture, have been highly influential on many choreographers across genres.  Last winter while visiting a friend in Mahattan, we went and saw New York City Ballet perform Balanchine's Square Dance.  In this work Balanchine joined the traditions of folk dancing with classical ballet.  He said, "the American style of classical dancing, its supple sharpness and richness of metrical invention, its superb preparation for risks, and its high spirits were some of the things I was trying to show in this ballet."  In the original choreography, Balanchine had a caller on stage directing the dancers.  Later in his career he removed the caller and added a male solo variation that is stunning.  The work is incredibly moving.  When we saw it performed, after the curtain fell, I could see that many of the people in the audience were misty.  While the steps are complex, the overall feel of the work is evocative of the spirit of Appalachian folk dancing.  You can see the rhythms of the dancers movements and the patterns of the clogging withing the ballet's choreography.  Unfortunately there are no public videos of Square Dance, so here is a clip of Pacific Northwest Ballet rehearsing the work to give an idea of what it is like.

One of Martha Graham's masterworks is Appalachian Spring.  This work draws more from the ideas of Americana as experienced through Appalachian culture, rather than directly through any folk lineage of dancing from the region.  The story told is a spring celebration of the American pioneers of the 1800s after building a new farmhouse. Among the central characters are a newlywed couple, a neighbor, a revivalist preacher and his followers.  Below is the first part of a four part recording of the work.

The Four Elements

EARTH

Trey McIntyre's Limerance

 

This movement/dance video by the Trey McIntyre Project reminds me of the Butoh style movement of Eiko and Koma and the cinematography of  surface studies by Rauschenberg and other Black Mountain College artists.  The first part of the video creates strong imagery of  the body's connection with the sculpted landscape, continuing to the two dancers together on the shore performing movement that makes me think of tectonic plates slowly shifting, or the water eroding the sand of the beach.

AIR

Paul Taylor's Airs

 

This is possibly my favorite of Taylor's ballets.  The choreography is stunning and the dancers perform the incredibly difficult variations with such ease and grace that they perfectly embody the wind, the breeze, a gail, with amazing musicality.  It's hard to believe that there are only 7 dancers in this ballet as it moves with the constant speed that only baroque music provides.  In general I'm not a fan of baroque music, but the music of that era is responsible for accompanying some of the best dances ever created.

FIRE

Maurice Bejart's Firebird

This version of Bejart's Firebird is danced by the Wuyan Ballet.  Bejart was one of the most avant-garde ballet choreographers of the 20th century (if you want to see one of the trippiest Nutcrackers, watch his).   His choreography combined with the Stravinsky suite makes me feel like I'm watching a crackling fire breathe and grow.  The floor patterns reinforce the urgency and wildness of an uncontained fire, and the simple costuming works to create the image of a flame rising out of and fighting the ashes.

WATER

Doris Humphrey's Water Study

It is hard to believe that this study was originally choreographed in 1928 as it still holds up remarkably in the modern dance canon.  The beginning of the study looks like an optical illusion; it takes time to believe that those are simply people moving on a floor.  This study makes me think of looking at an abstract expressionist painting, like one of Rothko's color fields.  The movement is relatively simple and repetitive and the majority of the study the dancers are moving in varied unison, but it is so evocative of water that it is difficult to look away.