Skidmore dancers invited to perform at NYC's Joyce Theater

The Martha Graham Dance Company has invited Skidmore College dancers along with six other student groups to perform at the Joyce Theater in New York as part of the company's 86th anniversary season.

The Company has chosen Inner Landscape as the focus for its 2012 season and will present a great range of performances, partnerships and educational activities exploring the psychological aspects of dance.

The special student Inner Landscape program will take place at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 14. The Joyce Theater, one of the premiere theaters for dance in New York City, is located at 175 8th Ave.

"Having the opportunity to perform a Graham work is an invaluable experience and to be doing so at the prestigious Joyce Theater, alongside some of the finest dance conservatories in the country and the Martha Graham Ensemble, is truly an honor. We are thrilled to have been invited to participate in this exciting collaborative event," says Mary Harney, artist-in-residence in Skidmore's Dance Department.

Skidmore students will perform the classic work Steps in the Street (Chronicle) (1936). It was reconstructed/staged for the Skidmore dancers by guest artist Susan Kikuchi from the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, and is being directed by Harney.

"Martha Graham's Steps in the Street speaks to the strength and resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity," continues Harney. "This classic work brings us back to the roots of American modern dance which were borne out of the need to express man's innermost thoughts and feelings through movement. Whether a result of the rise of fascism in the late 1930's, or the displacement of people as a consequence of a natural disaster in contemporary times, the subject of human emotion is timeless and universal."

Chronicle premiered at the Guild Theater in New York City Dec. 20, 1936. The dance was a response to the menace of fascism in Europe. Earlier that year, Graham had refused an invitation to take part in the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, stating: "I would find it impossible to dance in Germany at the present time. So many artists that I know and respect have been persecuted, have been deprived of the right to work for ridiculous and unsatisfactory reasons, that I should consider it impossible to identify myself, by accepting the invitation, with the regime that has made such things possible. In addition, some of my concert group would not be welcomed in Germany" (a reference to the fact that many members of her group were Jewish).

According to the original program note, "Chronicle does not attempt to show the actualities of war; rather does it, by evoking war's images, set forth the fateful prelude to war, portray the devastation of spirit which it leaves in its wake, and suggest an answer." This is one of the very few dances Martha Graham made which can be said to express explicitly political ideas, but, unlike Immediate Tragedy (1937) and Deep Song (1937), dances she made in response to the Spanish Civil War, this dance is not a realistic depiction of events. The intent is to universalize the tragedy of war. The original dance, with music by Wallingford Riegger, was 40 minutes in length, divided into three sections: "Dances before Catastrophe - Spectre 1914 and Masque," "Dances after Catastrophe - Steps in the Street and Tragic Holiday," and "Prelude to Action." The Company has reconstructed and now performs Spectre 1914, Steps in the Street and Prelude to Action.

Dance students from seven different national training programs will come to NYC to perform Inner Landscape classics. In addition to Skidmore these groups include the Graham Center's second company, Graham II, the University of Arizona, the Hartt School (Connecticut), Point Park University (Pennsylvania), the New World School of the Arts (Florida), and the Interlochen Arts Academy (Michigan). Dances to be performed include six masterworks by Martha Graham seminal to her revolution in modern dance. University of Arizona will perform a work by another important pioneer of American dance, Charles Weidman.

"We are very proud of our student productions of Graham dances and have partnered with schools all over the world since 2003," says Janet Eilber, artistic director of the Martha Graham Center. "This is the first time we've organized a gathering of this year's top student productions. It's going to be a logistical challenge to have over 100 students on the stage in the course of the evening, but the energy will be tremendous. And I know it will be very moving to see the next generation of dancers take on these masterpieces of American dance."

Those in the Skidmore/Saratoga Springs communities who desire to see the work will have a chance to see Steps in the Street when it is performed at the Dance Department's Spring Concert on Fri. April 27th 8 p.m. Friday, April 27, and 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, April 28, in the Dance Theater.

For more information about the Martha Graham Dance Company, visit marthagraham.org.