Martha Graham Dance Company Announces February Digital Events
Company:
Martha Graham Dance Company
The Martha Graham Dance Company continues its online programming on Patreon, bringing subscribers new levels of access to its dancers, studios, archives, educational programs, and performances. The Company’s all-digital 95th season offers unprecedented ways of stepping inside the work of the Company, the groundbreaking, iconic choreographies of Martha Graham, and the dances commissioned from some of today’s top choreographers.
The Company’s digital offerings are curated thematically by month. The February programming, Past/Present: New Works for the Graham Company, features works inspired by Graham’s own discoveries and themes by Maxine Doyle, Bobbi Jene Smith, and Sonya Tayeh. Like Graham, Doyle and Smith’s Deo, created for the Company in 2019, uses Greek mythology to make a contemporary statement. Tayeh begins early rehearsals with the Company for a re-envisioning of Graham’s Canticle for Innocent Comedians, which will premiere in 2022.
All offerings and events are available starting at $3 per month via Patreon. Membership packages are available at patreon.com/marthagrahamdance. Single tickets are available for certain events at www.marthagraham.org.
Saturday, February 6, 2:30pm
Martha Matinee: Deo by Maxine Doyle and Bobbi Jene Smith
$7 (Patreon members) / $10 (single tickets)
A streamed series featuring gems from the archives and performances from the Company’s extensive repertory, Martha Matinees are hosted by Artistic Director Janet Eilber and include a live chat with Eilber and special guests.
The February matinee will feature a screening of Deo by Maxine Doyle and Bobbi Jene Smith, choreographers who are both known for their use of drama and emotional content. The work, created for the women in the Company, is inspired by the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone. It features an original score by experimental electronic musician Lesley Flanigan and costumes by Karen Young. Deo premiered at the Joyce Theater in April 2019. Dancers Natasha Diamond-Walker and So Young An, both from the cast of Deo, will join Eilber in the live chat.
Monday, February 15 – Friday, February 19 (exact days/times TBA)
NEW@Graham
$20 (Patreon members) / $25 (single tickets)
This special format for the February Studio Series invites you into a livestream of a rehearsal with Sonya Tayeh as she begins to create material for Canticle for Innocent Comedians on the Company dancers.
Wednesday, February 24, 5pm
Ask Us Anything, a Zoom wrap-up of the month’s events with a Q&A.
About the Martha Graham Dance Company
The Martha Graham Dance Company has been a leader in the development of contemporary dance since its founding in 1926. Today, the Company is embracing a new programming vision that showcases masterpieces by Graham alongside newly commissioned works by contemporary artists. With programs that unite the work of choreographers across time within a rich historical and thematic narrative, the Company is actively working to create new platforms for contemporary dance and multiple points of access for audiences.
Since its inception, the Martha Graham Dance Company has received international acclaim from audiences in more than 50 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The Company has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, the Paris Opera House, Covent Garden, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as at the base of the Great Pyramids in Egypt and in the ancient Herod Atticus Theatre on the Acropolis in Athens. In addition, the Company has also produced several award-winning films broadcast on PBS and around the world.
Anne O’Donnell and Xin Ying in Maxine Doyle and Bobbi Jene Smith’s "Deo." Photo by Melissa Sherwood
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