Martha Graham Dance Center To Establish New Home In Midtown Manhattan

]The Martha Graham Dance Center has announced that it will relocate the dance organization's headquarters to 1501 Broadway in January 2026, securing a new and expanded home in Times Square for the renowned Martha Graham Dance Company as it celebrates its 100th anniversary.

The Center has secured a 30-year lease on the facility at 1501 Broadway. The new space will serve as the permanent home of the Martha Graham Center, encompassing the Graham Company, School, Offices, and Martha Graham Resources, which oversees archiving and licensing. This state-of-the-art space will significantly enhance the Center's ability to fulfill its mission of showcasing Martha Graham masterpieces alongside vital contemporary work, and will enable the Center to expand its educational programs.

The Center will occupy 30,000 square feet on the 11th floor of the building, and will work with MBB Architects to redesign and build out a six-studio facility with dressing, reception, public, archival, and administrative support spaces. The Center will also continue to support the dance community and other performing arts groups, at times under a subsidized rental program.

“We are delighted to be establishing a new home for this historic company and school. The nearly $6 million capital budget is a terrific investment in the Center's future as it supports programmatic plans that have long been held back by limited space,” says LaRue Allen, Executive Director, Martha Graham Dance Company. “We expect significant school growth as the Graham organization continues to welcome students from around the world and expands its offerings to serve a greater number of children and teens.”

The Martha Graham Center has operated at the Westbeth Artists Housing complex since July 2012. The Center currently has two studio spaces at Westbeth and rents office space on the second floor. In 2021 the Center began renting additional studio space at St. Veronica's Church on Christopher Street to accommodate its growing needs. The Center has been searching for a new facility for the past three years and has considered several locations. 1501 Broadway (at 43rd Street), which is currently unoccupied and originally functioned as rehearsal space for the Paramount Theater, stood out because of the building's Theater District location and its suitable layout providing double- and triple-height ceilings over what will be the two main studios. Additionally, the building is at a major New York City crossroads, well served by public transportation. Marcus Rayner at Colliers and John Oler of JSBO Realty and Capital advised the Martha Graham Dance Company during lease negotiations.

In June 2023, the Martha Graham Dance Company unveiled plans for its centenary in April 2026. As the first American dance company to achieve this milestone, securing a new home for the Company marks a pivotal moment in the organization's 100-year history and will honor its legacy as it enters its second century.

About the 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. 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. 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.

Though Martha Graham herself is the best-known alumna of her company, the Company has provided a training ground for some of modern dance's most celebrated performers and choreographers. Former members of the Company include Merce Cunningham, Erick Hawkins, Paul Taylor, John Butler, and Glen Tetley. Celebrities who have joined the Company in performance include Mikhail Baryshnikov, Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, Maya Plisetskaya, Tiler Peck, Misty Copeland, Herman Cornejo, and Aurélie Dupont.

In recent years, the Company has challenged expectations and experimented with a wide range of offerings beyond its main stage performances. It has created a series of intimate in-studio events, forged innovative creative partnerships with the likes of Siti Company, Performa, the New Museum, Barneys New York, and the Greek Theater Festival in Siracusa, Italy (to name a few); created substantial digital offerings with Google Arts & Culture, YouTube, and Cennarium; and created a model for reaching new audiences through social media. The astonishing list of artists who have created works for the Graham dancers in the last decade reads like a catalog of must-see choreographers: Kyle Abraham, Aszure Barton, Baye & Asa, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Lucinda Childs, Marie Chouinard, Michelle Dorrance, Nacho Duato, Mats Ek, Andonis Foniadakis, Liz Gerring, Larry Keigwin, Michael Kliën, Pontus Lidberg, Lil Buck, Lar Lubovitch, Josie Moseley, Richard Move, Bulareyaung Pagarlava, Annie-B Parson, Yvonne Rainer, Jamar Roberts, Hofesh Shechter, Sonya Tayeh, Doug Varone, Luca Vegetti, Gwen Welliver, and Robert Wilson.

The current Company dancers hail from around the world and, while always grounded in their Graham core training, can also slip into the style of contemporary choreographers like a second skin, bringing technical brilliance and artistic nuance to all they do—from brand-new works to Graham classics to pieces from early pioneers such as Isadora Duncan, Jane Dudley, Anna Sokolow, and Mary Wigman. “Some of the most skilled and powerful dancers you can ever hope to see,” according to The Washington Post. “One of the great companies of the world,” says The New York Times, while the Los Angeles Times notes, “They seem able to do anything, and to make it look easy as well as poetic.”

For more information about the Company, visit www.marthagraham.org.