Photo Flash: HISTOIRE by Martha Graham Dance Company

The Martha Graham Dance Company's spring NEW@Graham features a look inside two works that are new to the Company: Lucinda Childs' Histoire and Lar Lubovitch's The Legend of Ten.

For Histoire, Childs has expanded a 1999 duet she created for the Company into a work for eight dancers. The Legend of Ten joins the Company's repertory in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. Excerpts from both works will be performed by the renowned Graham dancers and introduced by Graham Company Artistic Director Janet Eilber. The Company has both works on stage New York City Center season this April. Check out photos from Histoire below!

Lucinda Childs began her career at the Judson Dance Theater In New York in 1963. In 1976 she was featured in the landmark avant-garde opera Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson, for which she won an Obie Award. Her most enduring works for her own dance company, Dance (1979) and Available Light (1983), continue to tour internationally. Since 1981 Childs has choreographed more than 30 works for major ballet companies, including the Paris Opera Ballet and Les Ballet de Monte Carlo. She has also directed and choreographed a number of contemporary and 18th-century operas. She holds the rank of Commandeur in France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2017 she received the Golden Lion award from the Venice Biennale and the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival award for lifetime achievement.

Lar Lubovitch has choreographed more than 110 dances. In addition to being performed by his own company, his works have been performed by many other major companies throughout the world, including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and The Joffrey Ballet. Lubovitch has choreographed concert works for Olympic ice skaters, including John Curry, Peggy Fleming, and JoJo Starbuck, and his work for theater and film includes Sondheim/Lapine's Into the Woods (Tony Award nomination), The Red Shoes (Astaire Award), and the Tony Award-winning revival of The King and I on Broadway and in London's West End. Lubovitch is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement and the Dance Magazine Award. In 2016, he was named one of America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures by the Dance Heritage Coalition. 2018 marks his company's 50th anniversary.

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.

Photos by Melissa Sherwood

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