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"Martha Graham Legacy Project"

The Library of Congress

http://www.marthagrahmdance.org/

http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/graham.html

The Martha Graham Legacy Project materials are available for viewing at The Library of Congress including a 15-minute demonstration tape, "Essential Elements," and approximately sixty hours of "Study Tapes" created from coaching sessions, interviews, rehearsals and performances recorded on digital betacam from 1999 to 2001.

Photo credits (L-R; T-B)

Christine Dakin coaching Miki Orihara, cam: V. Losick

Terese Capucilli coaching Fang-Yi Sheu, cam: V. Losick

Stuart Hodes coaching Tadej Brdnik, cam: V. Losick

Yuriko Kikuchi coaching Brides, Fang-Yi Sheu, cam: V. Losick

The Martha Graham Legacy Project (MGLP) is an extensive documentation and preservation initiative of the Music Division of the Library of Congress with the support of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The MGLP had three goals: to preserve historical materials that explicate and document the Graham legacy; to establish the Martha Graham Collection at the Library of Congress; and to create 'new' historical and artistic materials that document her legacy. MGLP Project Director, Vicky Risner, Dance Specialist with Library of Congress and Jon Newsom, Chief of the Library of Congress Music Division worked closely with Janet Eilber, former principal dancer and Artistic Director of the Martha Graham Resources.

In November 1999 digital betacam production began with coaching sessions at Chelsea Studios in New York where the Martha Graham Dance Company was preparing for performances in Washington, D.C. and Europe. Anna Kisselgoff conducted interviews with Pearl Lang and Yuriko Kikuchi, and Peter Sparling interviewed Stuart Hodes, Christine Dakin, Terese Capucilli and Janet Eilber.

Later in November 1999 at the Library of Congress Coolidge Auditorium, coaching sessions, public performance, technical and dress rehearsals were taped with two and four cameras. Dances performed: "Appalachian Spring," "Frontier," "Heretic," "Satyric Festival Song," "Deep Song" and "El Penitente." Also recorded was "An Act of Becoming" - a new work based on letters exchanged by Graham and composer Aaron Copeland during the Library of Congress commission of "Appalachian Spring."

In 2000 and 2001 interviews were conducted by Janet Eilber and Peter Sparling with former members of the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York at locations including the Noguchi Museum, and in London at The Place. Interviews emphasized technique, characterization and Graham's use of imagery in an effort to convey information that will ensure the integrity of future staging and interpretation of Graham's work.

Pearl Lang coaching Martin Lofsnes, cam: V. Losick

Peter Sparling coaching Revivalist, Martin Lofsnes, cam: T. Hurwitz

Stuart Hodes coaching Tadej Brdnik & Miki Orihara cam: V. Losick

Yuriko Kikuchi coaching Followers: Alessandra Prosperi, Virginie Mecene, Erica Dankmeyer & Jennifer DePalo cam: T. Hurwitz

Yuriko Kikuchi coaching Brides, Fang-Yi Sheu & Miki Orihara, cam: Losick

Pearl Lang coaching Martin Lofsnes, cam: Losick

Christine Dakin coaching Miki Orihara cam: Losick

Stuart Hodes coaching Tadje Brdnik cam: Losick

Jane Dudley at the Place, London January 5, 2001. DP/Cam: Tom Hurwitz

Quotes from
"Essential Elements"

Martha Graham Legacy Project

http://www.londondance.com/Content.asp?Level=2&Subsection=458

Bertram Ross: She walked into the studio against the barre and held this fabric over her head - it was like a veil. And it looked like all the lights went out. And she turned pink.

Linda Hodes: She was so -- so present, she was almost vibrating. I mean, she wasn't vibrating but it seemed as if when I got close to her I was being sucked into her world.

Mary Hinkson: She did this always by finding a way to be vulnerable. And to almost empty the body so that it was possible to pull somebody in with you.

Helen McGeehee: I remember when I was the victim, when Martha would take the dress and pour over it and burn the victim. She was really hot. I felt the heat coming from her.

Robert Cohan: She was able to create a quality that you felt very strongly, a smell, a taste, a way of moving, that you felt very strongly. And it would be hard to make a false movement in front of her because of that.

Nina Fonaroff: She was the one that moved you to move that way. Because you weren't imitating anything, you weren't exploiting anything, you were fulfilling something.

Jane Dudley: She had a real gift for putting her finger on the innards of a feeling and she was not afraid of dealing with those dark things in herself and in people.

Pearl Lang: With Martha's repertoire and one of its attributes that makes it great, is that every dance is another world.

Christine Dakin: Even after Martha's death a great number of audience have been drawn to Martha's work. It touches such a universal, such a universal core in every human being that it can't be denied. People feel it.