MARTHA GRAHAM (1894–1991) is recognized as a primal artistic force of the 20th century, alongside Picasso, James Joyce, Stravinsky, and Frank Lloyd Wright. TIME magazine named her “Dancer of the Century,” and People magazine named her among the female “Icons of the Century.” As a choreographer, Graham was as prolific as she was complex. She created 181 ballets and a dance technique that has been compared to ballet in its scope and magnitude. Her approach to dance and theater revolutionized the art form and her innovative physical vocabulary has irrevocably influenced dance worldwide.
The MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY has been a leader in the evolving art form of modern dance since its founding in 1926.It is both the oldest dance company in the United States and the oldest integrated dance company. Today, the Company is embracing a new programming vision that showcases masterpieces by Graham alongside newly commissioned works by contemporary artists. During its 100-year history, the Company has received acclaim from audiences and critics in more than 50 countries. “These men and women easily embody the choreographer’s sense of dancers as angelic athletes,” says Robert Greskovic of The Wall Street Journal, while Siobhan Burke of The New York Times asks,“Can this please never go away?”
JANET EILBER has been Artistic Director of the Martha Graham Dance Company since 2005. Her direction has focused on creating new forms of audience access to Martha Graham’s masterworks and has burnished the reputation of the Company as one of the country’s great cultural assets.
To celebrate its Centennial, the Company has organized an extensive series of programs and events exploring the diversity and depth of Graham’s extraordinary artistic legacy. GRAHAM100 features performances, new productions, exhibitions, film screenings, publications, discussions, and educational activities that build on the Company’s legacy of innovation and its present and future vision based on this incomparable legacy.
Appalachian Spring (1944)
Graham’s beloved masterwork and “a testimony to the simple fineness of the human spirit.”
Score: Aaron Copland
Set: Isamu Noguchi
Costumes: Martha Graham
CAVE (2022)
A visceral collective movement experience, with a powerful, swirling shared kinetic energy.
Choreography: Hofesh Shechter
Music: Âme and Hofesh Shechter
Costumes: Taylor McNeill and Caleb Krieg
Lighting: Yi-Chung Chen
Cave of the Heart (1946)
A shattering study of the destructive power of love inspired by the story of Medea.
Score: Samuel Barber
Set: Isamu Noguchi
Costumes: Martha Graham
Chronicle (1936)
Graham’s stirring response to the rise of fascism in 1936 and to the unmatched power of the collective will.
Music: Wallingford Riegger
Set: Isamu Noguchi
Costumes: Martha Graham
Clytemnestra (1958)
Graham’s masterpiece of contemporary theater and her only full-evening work, the characters and tragedy of the Trojan War resonate with today’s themes.
Music: Halim El Dahm
Set: Isamu Noguchi
Costumes: Martha Graham and Helen McGehee
Cortege (2025)
Drawing inspiration from Martha Graham's Cortege of Eagles, Baye & Asa focus on Charon, the ferryman who shepherds souls to the underworld.
Choreography: Baye & Asa
Music: Jack Grabow
Costumes: Caleb Krieg
Lighting: Yi-Chung Chen
Dark Meadow Suite (1946)
A noted arrangement of highlights from the original featuring the renowned choreography for the ensemble of men and women.
Music: Carlos Chavez Set: Isamu Noguchi Costumes: Martha Graham
Deaths and Entrances (1943)
A prime example of Graham’s early psychological works, the dance is inspired by the lives of the three Brontë sisters and the struggle of women to follow their deepest impulses in the face of convention and tradition.
Music: Hunter Johnson
Set: Arch Lauterer
Costumes: Martha Graham
Deep Song (1937)
A deeply resonant response to the Spanish Civil War, a cry of anguish, this solo is an embodiment of Graham’s fears for a world torn apart by man’s inhumanity to man.
Music: Henry Cowell
Set: Martha Graham
Costume: Martha Graham
Diversion of Angels (1948)
An ensemble work for the company and a joyous, lyrical, abstract essay on the infinite aspects of love.
Music: Norman Dello Joio
Costumes: Martha Graham
Ekstasis (1933)
A reimagining of a sculptural Graham solo from 1933 brought back to the stage by Virginie Mécène.
Music: Ramon Humet
Costume: Martha Graham
Errand into the Maze (1947)
Loosely derived from the myth of Theseus, who journeys into the labyrinth to confront the Minotaur, this duet sends a woman on the mission. The maze may be her own mind and the confrontation may be with her own fears.
Music: Gian Carlo Menotti
Set: Isamu Noguchi
Costumes: Martha Graham
Frontier (1935)
Graham’s masterwork solo from 1935. A young woman facing the future.
Music: Louis Horst
Set: Isamu Noguchi
Costume: Martha Graham
Immediate Tragedy (1937)
A dance of determination and, finally, resilience.
Choreography: Martha Graham reimagined by Janet Eilber
Costume: Martha Graham
Music: Christopher Rountree
Lighting: Yi-Chung Chen
Lamentation (1930)
Graham’s signature solo — the essence of grief itself.
Music: Zoltán Kodály
Sets: Martha Graham
Costume: Martha Graham
Night Journey (1947)
One of Graham’s greatest masterworks. A chilling reinvention of the tragedy of Oedipus told through the eyes of his mother and wife, Jocasta.
Music: William Schumann
Set: Isamu Noguchi
Costumes: Martha Graham
Satyric Festival Song (1932)
An early, witty solo in which Graham mocks her own serious reputation.
Music: Fernando Palacios
Costumes: Martha Graham
Spectre-1914 (1936)
The opening section of Chronicle, Spectre-1914 evokes the foreboding prelude to war.
Music: Wallingford Riegger
Lighting: Jean Rosenthal
Steps in the Street (1936)
A stark, explosive response to the devastation and isolation that war leave in its wake. Performed separately or as the center section of Graham’s Chronicle.
Music: Wallingford Reigger
Costumes: Martha Graham
We the People (2024)
Our new production of Agnes de Mille‘s iconic work of Americana.
Choreography by Jamar Roberts
Music by Rhiannon Giddens, Arrangedby Gabe Witcher
Costume Design by Karen Young
Lighting Design by Yi-Chung Chen