Graham 2 Announces 2023 New York Season, June 1-3, 2023

This June, the Martha Graham Dance Company's acclaimed Second Company will be back on stage for its 40th New York season with an exciting program of new works and Graham classics.

Performances will take place Thursday and Friday, June 1-2 at 7:00pm, and Saturday, June 3 at 2:30pm and 7:00pm, at the Martha Graham Studio Theater, 55 Bethune Street, 11th Floor, in Manhattan.

This season Graham 2 continues exploring the theme of human/nature. The program, which includes a musical interlude with live music by Andreas Brade and Tracy Yang, will include a rarely seen Graham work, Temptations of the Moon, from 1986; Diversion of Angels (1948); and excerpts from Clytemnestra (1958). The program also features a new work, Under Their Breath, by choreographer Bradley Shelver. This group work delves into the conversations that we often keep to ourselves, those that we only think about or whisper under our breath. Additionally, the program will include Lorn MacDougal's recently revived solo, Glass. In a work that explores one's toughness and fragility, the figure in Glass, explains MacDougal, is "filled with wonder in the discovery of her small self within the enormous world." The piece is set to percussion on glass by Collin Walcott and voice by Meredith Monk.

"In an age when humans are continuing to explore space, the issues of our relationship with nature and with one another continue to be urgent on our planet, even if more awareness grows globally. These worldwide personal and political concerns motivate us to highlight more awareness through art," said Graham 2 Director Virginie Mécène. "This season speaks to our present time by celebrating nature, poetically referring to space, and representing our responsibility to living together on this planet."

Tickets for Graham 2 are $25 in advance/$30 at the door. Student tickets are $15 in advance/$20 at the door. Tickets can be purchased online at marthagraham.org/graham2.

Virginie Mécène, Director of Graham 2 since 2007 and Director of Programs at the Martha Graham School, is a former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company who has toured the world and performed many roles of the repertoire from 1994 to 2006. Her direction has focused on training the next generations of dancers for the Martha Graham Dance Company and other companies around the world, as well as the next generations of Graham teachers through her pedagogic instruction. She served as the director of the Martha Graham School from 2007 to 2015, maintaining and developing the school curriculum while sustaining the integrity of the Martha Graham technique and nurturing the process that continues its development. She created the Intensive Graham Teacher Workshop for teachers of all backgrounds. She has restaged, reconstructed, and directed numerous works of Martha Graham at universities and dance companies, as well as taught the Graham Technique at multiple national and international conferences. In 2017, she reimagined and choreographed Graham's lost solo Ekstasis for the Martha Graham Dance Company. Ekstasis was featured at the Palais Garnier, in Paris, performed by Etoile and Director of the Paris Opera Ballet, Aurélie Dupont. Mécène's choreographic work has been presented in other venues such as New York City Center and The Joyce Theater in New York City, the Adrienne Arhsht Center and the Broward Center, in Florida, and Kaatstbaan International Dance Center in Tivoli, NY. Mécène was also principal dancer with Buglisi Dance Theater since its inception in 1994, the Pearl Lang Dance Theater, and Battery Dance Company. A native of France, she graduated from the Université de Bourgogne with a licence professionnelle in artistic and cultural management. She has also served as a lecturer at Barnard College, and as the president of the Emergency Fund for Student Dancers, regrouping the member schools of the Ailey School, Limón Dance Institute, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Peridance Capezio Center, and the Martha Graham School, from 2012 to 2016. Mécène also serves as an adjudicator for dance competitions nationally and internationally.

Lorn MacDougal has worked as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher in New York City for over three decades, performing in the companies of Martha Graham, Lar Lubovitch, Daniel Nagrin, Bertram Ross, and Phyllis Lamhut while producing evenings of her collaborations with film animator and performer Alain Le Razer, whose award-winning dance/animation film Distillations featured MacDougal. She has taught at the Julliard School, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, Princeton University, Rutgers University, Trinity Laban Conservatory, and the University of Texas at Austin. MacDougal currently resides in Austin, where she has a Pilates practice.

Bradley Shelver is a dancer, teacher, choreographer, and author from South Africa. He has danced with Ailey 2, Elisa Monte Dance, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Ballet Hispanico, the Francesca Harper Project, Limón Dance Company, Phoenix Dance Theater (UK), and in projects with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane, Lar Lubovich Dance Company, Universal Ballet, Radio City Music Hall, and in productions with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and is in his 14th season with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. He has created works for Joffrey Ballet Concert Group, Graham 2, Ailey 2, Richmond Ballet, Ballet Austin, Lustig Dance Theater, Compania Rio Dance, Cape Dance Company, Cedar Lake 2, Dance Lab New York, as well as creating works for the Royal Danish, Central Ballet School, Royal Swedish Ballet Schools, Joffrey Ballet School, The Ailey School, Boston Conservatory and Long Island University. From 2013 to 2016, he was the artistic director of the STEPS Repertory Ensemble. He is currently the artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet Concert Group in New York City. He is on faculty for many prestigious dance conservatories worldwide including The Ailey School, Joffrey Ballet School, and STEPS on Broadway to name a few. Shelver is an adjunct ballet professor at Montclair State University and has taught the companies of Matthew Bourne's, Adventures in Motion Pictures, The Lion King on Broadway, The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and Elisa Monte Dance (now Emerge125). His book, Performance Through the Dance Technique of Lester Horton, is available worldwide. He will create a new work for, Big Muddy Dance for Summer 2023.

Andreas Brade, from Stuttgart, Germany, moved to the US to attended Berklee College of Music, for a degree in jazz performance. After graduating with a masters in Modern American Music from Longy School of Music of Bard College, Brade moved to New York. Brade has performed at festivals and venues such as the Montreal Jazz Fest, The Kennedy Center, Boston Symphony Hall, The Blue Note, and NJPAC. He has composed music for Cornfield Dance for over 10 years, and has worked as an accompanist the last 15 years for the Martha Graham School, Mark Morris Dance Center, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and Joffery Ballet. He is faculty at the Brooklyn Music School and runs his own teaching studio in Brooklyn.

Tracy Yang, a New York-based jazz composer and pianist, was born and raised in Taiwan. She has worked with many different jazz ensembles, including bands such as The Army Jazz Ambassadors, Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra, BMI/New York Jazz Orchestra, and Taipei Jazz Orchestra. Her works have earned her several composition awards, including the Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize (2021), JEN Young Composer Showcase Selectees (2019), winner (2018), and honorable mention (2018) of Seattle Women's Jazz Orchestra's composition contest. Additionally, Yang has received grants from institutions such as New Music USA, New York Foundation for the Arts, the Queens Council on the Arts, Passim Iguana Music Fund, and Taiwan National Culture and Arts Foundation. Yang also serves as a dance accompanist at several prestigous dance companies such as Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Mark Morris, and the Juilliard School. She released her first EP, The 217 Diaries, in early 2021 and is hard at work on her upcoming jazz orchestra album OR.

Graham 2 is Martha Graham's Second Company. Its mission is to bring the Graham tradition to a younger audience, smaller venues, and cultural communities, and to be a springboard for early career dancers to enter the professional dance world. The most advanced dancers are selected from among the hundreds of students from around the world who study at the Martha Graham School. While in Graham 2, dancers are supported by a scholarship, receive stipends for performances, and may be given the opportunity to perform with the Martha Graham Dance Company. Seventy percent of the current Company began as members of Graham 2.

Under the direction of Virginie Mécène, Graham 2 performs Graham's repertory as well as the works of such guest choreographers as Robert Battle, Pascal Rioult, Adam Barruch, Kun-Yang Lin, Sir Robert Cohan, Darshan Singh Bhuller, Blanca Li, Brice Mousset, and Yoshito Sakuraba. Committed to its education outreach program, Graham 2 performs for more than 3,000 public school children each year. Graham 2 has performed with the Martha Graham Dance Company at New York City Center and The Joyce Theater and has an annual performance season at the Martha Graham Studio Theater. The troupe has also performed at such leading New York venues as the 92nd Street Y, Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, LaGuardia Community College, Iona College, and in such cities as Miami, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Wintergreen, VA, Cherry Hill, NJ, and Barcelona, Spain.