I am sorry to report that Matt Turney died today. She went peacefully and had the love and support of her wonderful son Adam, his loving wife, Jennifer and their three beautiful children. Her best friend, and my aunt. Mary Hinkson is still living in New York. I hope the next time Clytemnestra is performed, these gorgeous dancers will be acknowledged.
Miliosr, there are some Graham vehicles from the Sixties in which she did nothing but stand onstage
as a totem/symbol/deity while dancers surrounded her. At least Clytemnestra doesn't fall into that
category...
As a semi-Balanchine 'cultist', I admit you have a point about the Gospel of George; he himself referred
to his ballets as 'butterflies' and was famous for such remarks as 'there are no mothers-in-law in ballet';
'la danse, Madame...c'est une question morale'; and 'God creates: I only assemble'--clearly he put on
no airs about his own work. He also had the advantage over Graham of being an artist who did NOT
like to perform (by every account a great dancer who did not like to dance himself) and who was not
indelibly linked with the performance of virtually every great role he created. Graham, even on film,
burns up the stage and comes right through the camera; she was undoubtedly one of the great presences
and dancers of her time, and it has always put subsequent dancers of the caliber of Elisa Monte,
Mary Hinkson, Yuriko, Matt Turney (to name only a few of many stellar Graham company members) at
a huge disadvantage to be inevitably, and unfavorably, compared with Graham herself.
Graham was of the artistic and esthetic stature of a great classical actress; they have great roles in which
to express their gifts--she did not, and in attempting to make such roles she turned to classical mythology
and, indeed, classical theatre (Phedre, for example), as well as the lives of great female artists like
Dickinson. alas, some of the information she asked dancing to impart is beyond the scope of the art form,
as you say, but what a magnificent creator she was.
CLYTEMNESTRA revival - Graham Company
in Modern, Contemporary, and Other Dance
Posted
I am sorry to report that Matt Turney died today. She went peacefully and had the love and support of her wonderful son Adam, his loving wife, Jennifer and their three beautiful children. Her best friend, and my aunt. Mary Hinkson is still living in New York. I hope the next time Clytemnestra is performed, these gorgeous dancers will be acknowledged.