In the 1940’s, with World War II at full blast, a new genre of dance began to form: open-throated, patriotic Americana. The themes and costumes varied, but all of the dances celebrated the supposed attributes of American culture. Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring (1944), Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free (1944), Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo (1942) and Oklahoma! (1944) are the most well-known works of this genre.
Today, these works come across as hopeful and joyful at best, but also often naive and dated. The Martha Graham Dance Company in their annual residence at the Joyce Theater decided to present an evening of these sorts of works, including a modern-day example. It takes a special kind of energy to dance this genre, to make it seem fresh. The Martha Graham company mostly succeeded in this, with a few caveats.
The program opened with Frontier (1935), a brief solo that used two of Graham’s most frequent collaborators: composer Louis Horst and designer Isamu Noguchi. The solo was basically “Hi, I’m Martha Graham in a cowgirl outfit.” It used Graham’s most well-known skill repeatedly: her incredible hip flexibility that allowed her to show off the sky-high developpés decades before Sylvie Guillem was even born. Otherwise, the work was thin. Anne Souder had all of Martha’s flexibility without the larger-than-life Graham charisma.
Next up was Agnes de Mille’s legendary Rodeo. For this revival, the work got new costumes by Oana Botez and a new bluegrass arrangement of the Aaron Copland score by Gabriel Witcher. I actually disliked both. The costumes were overly day-glo colorful, with bright fuchsias and turquoises and complex floral patterns. The bluegrass arrangement made one think, “why bring sand to the beach?”
The Martha Graham dancers are wonderful and de Mille’s choreography still has a brilliant, exuberant energy. I especially loved the adagio and the hoe-down finale in which the tomboy cowgirl (Laurel Dalley Smith) finally gets to dance with the Champion Roper (Richard Villaverde). However, I cringed at some of the cutesy acting choices. The pouting, the shoulder shrugs. I wasn’t around in 1942, but I doubt de Mille would have directed her dancers to act so twee and precious.
After the intermission was Revolt and Immigrant (2024), Virginie Mécène’s “Martha inspired” work. It is based on two lost Graham solos: Revolt (1927) and STRIKE! (from Immigrant) (1928). The two solos were incredibly Graham-coded, but that was part of their appeal. You go to Martha Graham to see, well, works inspired by Martha Graham. The two soloists were incredible: Leslie Andrea Williams for Revolt and Xin Ying for Immigrant. Both had the Graham technique and the personality.
Jamar Roberts’ We the People closed the program. I’m mixed on Roberts’ work (a day later, I saw an excruciatingly pretentious work of his in Sara Mearns’ City Center program), but We the People was a rousing way to end the evening. The music was more bluegrass (!) by Rhiannon Giddens, and the language was more contemporary modern dance than Martha Graham, but it was musical and held one’s attention. I particularly loved the way Roberts had dancers move their arms to the music. Roberts said the piece was “equal parts protest and lament.” There were silent solos that were filled with angst, alternating with more upbeat group dances. It seemed as if the final message was that people are stronger together than when protesting alone.
What I love the most about seeing this company is that none of the dancers look like Martha Graham, but all of them have absorbed the Graham style. Janet Eilber has done a great job steering this company into the modern age.
