The Martha Graham School Will Host Teens Dance Graham Program This Month

The Teens Dance Graham program will feature some of Martha Graham's great modernist innovations in performances by the Teens@Graham in Our Own American Document and Panorama, students from LaGuardia High School in Ritual to the Sun, and Graham 2 in Heretic. The program will be presented on Friday, May 10, at 7pm and Saturday May 11, at 1pm and 5pm, at the Martha Graham Studio Theater, 55 Bethune Street, 11th Floor, in Manhattan.

The Teens@Graham dancers will present Our Own American Document. This two-part offering was created by students in response to Graham's 1938 work American Document in which she asked, What is an American? In her creation, Graham included spoken text excerpts from important American texts like the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address to the Emancipation Proclamation and a letter from Seneca chief Red Jacket. The work was an exploration of democracy and American identity. For Our Own American Document students under the guidance of guest artist Johnnie Cruise Mercer chose texts and developed dances to express their own American experience. The first section, which includes video interviews, movement explorations, and audience participation, will be shared at the Studio Series. The second part will be shared at Teens Take the Met on May 31. The collaborative curriculum is co-written by Mercer and Cynthia Stanley.

The Teens@Graham will also be joined by teens from all over the New York City metropolitan area who make up this year's cast of the All-City Panorama Project. This team of 25 students will dance Graham's powerful Panorama, which was choreographed in 1935 in response to the rise of fascism in Europe. With a theme of the power of people to make change, Panorama is a stunning example of 1930s modernism in which the architecture of the choreography delivers the emotional message. The studio performance is staged by Teens@Graham Program Director Amélie Benard.

The program also features students from LaGuardia High School in Ritual to the Sun, the final section of Graham's 1981 work Acts of Light. Called “startling in its simplicity” by The New York Times, the dance introduced a new period in Graham's work in which she showed less emphasis on theatrical elements. An ode to the Graham classroom technique, Ritual to the Sun is staged by former Company leading dancer Tadej Brdnik.

Graham 2, the Martha Graham Dance Company's acclaimed Second Company, will perform Graham's stark work Heretic, staged by Graham 2 director Virginie Mécène. Set to a Breton folk tune, Heretic premiered at New York City's Booth Theater in 1929 and has been called Graham's first great modern masterwork.

Tickets for the Teens Dance Graham Studio Series program are $30 (general) / $20 (students) and are available at https://marthagraham.org/studioseries/.