Graham's Anniversary Celebration
What: Martha Graham Dance Company's 80th anniversary
Where: Skirball Center at NYU, April 18, 2006 and at other sites
Why: To raise support for the company
It was long awaited, Graham's 80th anniversary retrospective performance including her first dances at her debut in 1926 to her last dance in 1990. But it was a depressing 2-hour event, fragmented in presentation, frivolously entertaining and a disappointment to her devoted supporters of which there are a great many.
After an opening statement of welcome from chairman Francis Mason and Mikhail Baryshnikov (he had danced in "Appalachian Spring" at an earlier fund-raiser), there followed archival film of Graham's first dances, highly tinged with the Denishawn theatrics from which she came before her meteoric rise to fame. Her nod to expressionism, "Heretic" (1929), was a weak presentation by the MG Ensemble. Elizabeth Auclair danced the Martha role, the protester against the norm. Katherine Crockett, in that solo of enduring sorrow, "Lamentation" (1930) was a welcome moment in a dreary series of unenergetically danced works. "Satyric Festival Song" (1932) showed Graham's giddy, but charming side as danced by Erica Dankmeyer. "Steps in the Street" (1936) was also pallid in performance as was an excerpt from "El Penitente" (1940).
Right about then, when a solid masterwork was needed to show Graham's masterful craft, it came in the form of "Appalachian Spring" (1944). But it was an uninspired interpretation, surprising since Miki Orihara as The Bride and Maurizio Nardi, as The Revivalist are MG professionals. Tadej Brdnik as The Husbandman, played the house instead of the role. A section from "Dark Meadow" (1946) followed unnecessar-ily since it lessened Graham's legacy. At last, a dancer who understands the essence of Graham's movement, with an ability to reflect the role's inner landscape and pull off a riveting performance, as she has in the past, arrived as Taiwanese Fang-Yi Sheu. Graham would have been fascinated with her and her rich and detailed understanding of a role, however small. Her technique is impeccable technique and she has beautiful, exotic looks. The role was little more than a crossover as Cassandra, the seer, from "Clytemnestra" (1958). The text from the Greek tragedy was read by actress, Judith Ivey.
At this point the focus of the evening moved (sorry) from serious present-ations to gender impersonation, by Richard Move, who was a 6-foot Graham with command over every nuance of her speech pattern, movement and especially her imperious exits. Move performed an excerpt from Graham's "Part Real-Part Dream" (1965) with Desmond Richardson tagging along. The evening closed with "Maple Leaf Rag" (1990, choreographed one year before Graham's death) in a sprightly interpretation. Piano accompaniment throughout was provided by Alan Moverman and Patrick Daugherty as a yeoman's tour de force.
To what did it all add up? It was a mixed-bag presentation with too many cooks in the kitchen; an absent artistic director, Californian Janet Eilber; few of the many major Graham alums available and still able to dance; none of Graham's glorious male dancers; and a bleak, complex effort by Patricia Birch to make it all look cohesive and viable. But Graham has risen from the ashes before and will do so again. The company changes direction to producer to Paul Szilard. They will perform on the Queen Mary 2 in a crossing from New York to Southampton and then in Germany and Greece this summer.