Martha Graham Dance Company Two NEW@GRAHAM Production

NEW@Graham offers audiences an inside look at the creative process of new works commissioned by the Martha Graham Dance Company.

Two NEW@Graham events will be presented this season. In December, the Company will present a work-in-progress showing of acclaimed choreographer Annie-B Parson's new work, inspired by Graham's 1941 comic ballet Punch and the Judy. In January, renowned Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui will show an excerpt of his new work, also in progress, which draws on Sufi mysticism and is set to traditional Middle Eastern music. The showings will include a conversation with the artists. The Company will premiere both works during its Joyce Theater season, under the theme of Sacred/Profane, in February 2017.

NEW@Graham: Annie-B Parson

Tuesday and Wednesday, December 13-14, at 7pm

NEW@Graham: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

Friday, January 6, at 3:30pm, and Wednesday, January 11, at 7pm

Both events will take place at the Martha Graham Studio Theater, located at 55 Bethune Street, 11th floor, in Manhattan. Tickets for NEW@Graham are $25 in advance/$30 at the door, and can be purchased at www.marthagraham.org/studioseries.

About the Artists

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's debut as a choreographer was in 1999 with Andrew Wale's contemporary musical Anonymous Society. Since then, he has made more than 20 fully fledged choreographic pieces and picked up a slew of prestigious awards. In 2008, Sadler's Wells named him as an Associate Artist, and since 2010 he has been artistic director of the Festival Equilibrio in Rome. In 2015 he was appointed as the new artistic director of the Royal Ballet Flanders. Cherkaoui also maintains his own company, Eastmen, founded in 2010 in Antwerp. He continues to work with a variety of theaters, opera houses, and ballet companies around the world.

Annie-B Parson co-founded Big Dance Theater in 1991. She has co-created over 20 works for the company, ranging from pure dance pieces to adaptations and deconstructions of found text, plays and literature. Her work with Big Dance has been commissioned by Les Subsistances in Lyon, the Brooklyn Academy Of Music, The National Theater of Paris/Chaillot, The Japan Society, The Walker Art Center, and many other venues. Big Dance recently celebrated its 25th anniversary at The Kitchen.

Parson has created choreography for opera, pop stars, theater, ballet, marching bands, objects, museums, symphonies, movies, TV, and a cast of 1,000 singers. She choreographed David Bowie/Ivo Van Hove's Lazarus; David Byrne's Here Lies Love, and Byrne's 2008 and 2012 world tours; St. Vincent's recent world tour; and for the David Lynch Festival and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. She has also made work for Mikhail Baryshnikov and Wendy Whelan. Parson has a work in the repertory of The Royal Ballet. She is the recipient of two Bessie Awards, a Franky Award, and the Jacob's Pillow Dance Award. Big Dance received an Obie in 2002.

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. a