Martha Graham On Tour

[Mme. Hermine]

A long time ago I recall seeing a performance by the Martha Graham company in Chicago. I recall that Martha Graham was on stage, sitting stage right, and that the company performed selections from the repertory, and that before each piece she would get up and talk about it a little and then sit down and the company would dance it. I don't remember much else other than that I enjoyed it quite a lot. Does anyone else remember something like this?

[sandik]

Graham did this frequently -- I think that she never really got over having to stop dancing, and this was her way of continuing to perform. I saw the company several times during this period, and was repeatedly gobsmacked by how funny she was in these little curtain speeches. We always think of Graham as being dead serious -- the technique is so fraught and she made so many works based on dire stories, but she could be very witty, and seemed to take pleasure in tickling the audience.

[papeetepatrick]

You get some of that on one of the old films, I think it's called 'Martha Graham in Performance', and is from late 50s, early 60s. 'Night Journey' is on there, and Martha and Bertram Ross and Paul Taylor are all in it. But I'm remembering a longish intro or little section in which she's getting ready to do Jocasta in her dressing room. She was so light and feminine and a touch coquettish. I think she even said something about this matter of 'light things', as opposed to all these mythologies with their tragedies she was always working with.

[sandik]

'Night Journey' is on there, and Martha and Bertram Ross and Paul Taylor are all in it.

Ah, thanks for the reminder. It's a great video, and her 'dressing room talk' is charming. I love watching Taylor in this -- you can see his old days as a swimmer in his shoulders.