New York Metropolis Middle, New York, NY.
April 20, 2024.
The Martha Graham Dance Firm was based in 1926, making it the oldest in the US and one of many oldest worldwide. The 2024 New York Metropolis Middle season marks the beginning of a three-year celebration to commemorate the centennial birthday, and the occasion is off to a tremendous begin. The spring season, entitled American Legacies, featured six works over the course of 4 nights. On the eve of my attendance, the corporate carried out Rodeo, We The Individuals and CAVE.
Rodeo, the 1942 work by Agnes de Mille, opened the present with reside music by bluegrass band The Gabe Witcher Sextet performing an new association of the Aaron Copeland authentic. The story of a cowgirl who doesn’t slot in with both the gents or the women till she dons a skirt served as a reminder of the struggles ladies went via, and proceed to undergo. Marzia Memoli performed the Cowgirl function with an earnest hope that was heartbreaking to observe – her pure embodiment of the stylized motion allowed the purity of appearing to shine as nicely, and left me unhappy for the Cowgirl, who needed to change who she was to slot in. The complete solid mastered the bodily comedy side of the story, a deal with to see such distinctive dancers dance one thing much less “severe.”
We The Individuals, a Jamar Roberts fee set to the eclectic folks music of Rhiannon Giddens, takes us from the rose-colored-glasses-historical-folk world of Rodeo to the present day wrestle of the “individuals” in opposition to the very actual atrocities on this planet and the enduring quest for social justice. This world — stark in tone, with a persistent cloud of smoke and mist hovering in regards to the dancers who had been costumed in denim (head to toe) — made no effort to spit shine the resistance. The vagueness of the specifics in narrative by no means diminish the ability of intent. Selecting a rating with roots born of nation individuals coming collectively to make music buoyed the message of collective energy and protest. The group sections had been pristine, and the solos all through gave the piece a deep degree of humanity. Brilliantly, the work sustained a way of hope amongst the actual grievances that accompany protest.
CAVE, the 2022 work from Hofesh Shechter, closed the evening with its excessive vitality, group-oriented rave-style choreography. At first look, it may very well be chaos, but it surely’s a extra of an orchestrated journey out and in of a dance flooring and a stage. Influenced by the concepts of uncooked human spirit, Shechter makes use of the pedestrian strikes of rave dancing to create a driving piece of dance the place the collective spirit of the human spirit reigns.
If the Metropolis Middle season of 2024 is simply the start of the three-year celebration of Martha Graham Dance Firm’s 100 years in existence, what’s to return has potential to showcase a number of the finest choreography and dancing on the market – simply because it has within the many years earlier than.
By Emily Sarkissian of Dance Informa.
