Martha Graham Dance Company's The EVE Project 2019–2020
Company:
Martha Graham Dance Company
The world-renowned Martha Graham Dance Company announces the second season of The EVE Project, a two-year initiative celebrating female empowerment and the upcoming 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote. Commissioned works from some of today’s top choreographers will be presented, and the classic repertory features Martha Graham’s heroines and anti-heroines—all with an underlying statement about female power.
The season kicks off in August and includes performances in 13 cities across the U.S., an engagement at Peak Performances/Montclair featuring a new work by Troy Schumacher and celebrating the 75th anniversary of Graham’s beloved masterwork Appalachian Spring, and a New York City Center season featuring Graham classics and a world premiere by Andrea Miller. The popular Graham Studio Series returns with seven events, offering audiences a behind-the-scenes look at the Company at work in the intimate setting of the Martha Graham Studio Theater.
The Company will have two major performance seasons in 2019–20. This fall, Graham’s celebrated masterpiece Appalachian Spring will be presented in concert with a Peak Performances commission, The Auditions, by choreographer Troy Schumacher and composer Augusta Read Thomas. This new work has been designed to resonate with Graham’s classic, which turns 75 this year. The International Contemporary Ensemble conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni will join the Graham Company for these performances, providing world-class renditions of the new music by Read Thomas and the original Pulitzer Prize-winning score for Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland. Performances run November 14–17, at the Alexander Kasser Theater.
In April 2020, the Company returns to New York City Center with four programs featuring works by female choreographers. Graham’s Circe (1963), not seen onstage in more than 15 years will be presented along with her comedic Every Soul Is a Circus (1939) and stirring Night Journey (1947), based on the myth of Jocasta, the wife and mother of Oedipus. The season will also feature a world premiere by in-demand choreographer Andrea Miller, known for her boldly inventive and visceral work. Last season’s critically acclaimed premieres — Pam Tanowitz’s Untitled (Souvenir), set to two string quartets by composer Caroline Shaw, and Maxine Doyle and Bobbi Jene Smith’s Deo, with an original score by Lesley Flanigan — will also be presented.
The Company will also present seven events as part of its popular Graham Studio Series. Coming up this season are two GrahamDeconstructed programs featuring Steps in the Streetand Circe, and two NEW@Graham programs—one with Troy Schumacher and another with Andrea Miller—providing a look inside the creative process of new works for the Company. The Studio Series also includes a Merce Cunningham and Graham event with technique demonstrations, a special holiday event with Graham 2, and the fourth annual NEXT@Graham festival, which showcases the work of emerging choreographers.
The Company’s touring includes performances at major venues and arts festival across the U.S., including the Vail Dance Festival, CO; Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, MA; Carolina Performing Arts in Chapel Hill, NC; San Diego Civic Theater in La Jolla, CA; and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., among others. The touring repertory includes Graham classics Diversion of Angels, Ekstasis, Appalachian Spring, Chronicle, Errand into the Maze, and Secular Games, as well the recently commissioned works Untitled (Souvenir) by Pam Tanowitz and Deo by Maxine and Doyle and Bobbi Jene Smith.
Martha Graham Dance Company 2019–20 Schedule
2019
August 9: Vail Dance Festival, Vail, CO
August 14–17: Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Becket, MA
August 18: The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA
September 24–25: GrahamDeconstructed: Steps in the Street
October 10: Modlin Center for the Arts, Richmond, VA
October 18: Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, Houston, TX
November 5–6: NEW@Graham with Troy Schumacher
November 14–17: Peak Performances, Alexander Kasser Theater, Montclair, NJ
December 7: Holiday Event with Graham 2
2020
January 17–18: Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH
January 22: San Diego Civic Theatre, La Jolla, CA
January 24: The Granada Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA
January 30: Memorial Hall, Carolina Performing Arts, Chapel Hill, NC
February 4–5: CunningGraham Technique Comparison
February 25–26: GrahamDeconstruted: Circe
March 5–7: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, DC
March 24–25: NEW@Graham with Andrea Miller
April 4: Northrop Auditorium, Minneapolis, MN
April 22–26: New York City Center, New York, NY
May 12–13: NEXT@Graham Festival
Tickets for the Peak Performances engagement, November 14–17, are available at www.peakperf.org/boxoffice/. Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University, 1 Normal Avenue, Montclair, NJ.
Tickets for the New York City Center season, April 22–26, will go on sale September 3 for New York City Center members. General tickets on sale September 10. To purchase tickets visit www.nycitycenter.org. New York City Center is located at 131 West 55th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues, in Manhattan.
Tickets for Graham Studio Series events, including series subscriptions, can be purchased at www.marthagraham.org/studioseries. All Graham Studio Series events will take place at the Martha Graham Studio Theater, 55 Bethune Street (11th Floor), in Manhattan.
About Martha Graham Dance Company
The Martha Graham Dance Company has been a leader in the evolving art form of modern 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 House, 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 Odeon of Herodes Atticus theater on the Acropolis in Athens. In addition, the Company has also produced several award-winning films broadcast on PBS and around the world.
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