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++READ MY REVIEW FOR SANTA BARBARA’S ARTS WEEKLY VOICE MAGAZINE OF THE MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY AT THE GRANADA THEATRE IN SANTA BARBARA ON JANUARY 24, 2020

The Eve Project: celebrating the 19th Amendment and Martha Graham

Martha Graham, arguably the founder of American contemporary dance, graduated Santa Barbara High in 1911 and never looked back, creating the Martha Graham Dance Company in New York City in 1926. 93 years later, Graham having passed in 1991, the company remains one of the most innovative contemporary dance ensembles in the world under the leadership of Janet Eilber, who has been Artistic Director of the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance since 2005.
With only two performances scheduled this season in California - San Diego and Santa Barbara’s Granada Theatre on January 24th - the company presented its homage to the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment which gave the vote to women (The Eve Project) with an evening of choreography created exclusively by women, including Virginie Mécène’s reimagining of Graham’s 1933 ballet Ekstasis, based on Graham’s notes and still photos; Lamentation Variations (2007) created by the choreographic triumvirate of Aszure Barton, Liz Gerring and Michelle Dorrance and three iconic masterpieces from Martha Graham’s extensive catalogue, Diversion of Angels (1948), Errand Into the Maze (1947) and Chronicle (1936).
Martha Graham knew her music. She was one of the first American choreographers to commission new music by living American composers for her dances. The completely sold out Granada Theatre program opened with Graham’s masterpiece Diversion of Angels (1948) which describes, in colors as well as through Norman Dello Joio’s fabulous score, three aspects of love; mature/white, erotic/red and adolescent/yellow. An encyclopedic example of Graham’s utterly unique choreographic style, including a prescient exploration of minimalism - still life poses, mesmerizing hieroglyphic movements, geometric patterns informing a larger visual consciousness – the corps and three principal couples performed the piece to perfection, a clear commitment to historic accuracy and respectful live documentation.
Virginie Mécène’s 2017 reworking from historical bits and pieces, of Graham’s 1933 solo piece Ekstasis (1933) was both contemporary – a wonderful score by Ramon Humet – and respectful. Superbly erotic while also celebrating Grahams words “The body is a sacred garment,” Mécène’s inspired choreography has made this magnificent work whole again, danced by Natasha M. Diamond-Walker with thrilling prescience. Graham’s Errand Into the Maze (1947) to another fabulous score, this time by Gian Carlo Menotti, featured Charlotte Landreau and Lloyd Mayor in what has become one of the great duos of the modern dance repertoire; an often chilling, always intense tour de force of Graham’s eponymous and singular movement signature.
After intermission, a haunting silent film of Graham performing her solo piece Lamentation (1930) as inspirational fingerprint for Lamentation Variations (2007) by choreographers Aszure Barton, Liz Gerring and Michelle Dorrance. Four composers are tapped; George Crumb, Michael J. Schumacher, Michelle Dorrance and Jaco Pastorius. A tour de force for three sets of soloists and the entire company, the Barton Variation was danced by Anne O’Donnell and Laurel Dalley Smith, the Gerring Variation by Lloyd Knight with So Young An, Alessio Crognale and Leslie Andrea Williams. The final Dorrance Variation featured So Young An, Alessio Crognale, Natasha M. Diamond-Walker, Lloyd Knight, Charlotte Landreau, Jacob Larsen, Lloyd Mayor, Marzia Memoli, Anne O’Donnell and Leslie Andrea Williams.
The last work on the program, Graham’s monumental Chronicle (1936) for women dancers, to a gripping score by Wallingford Riegger presages the approach of World War II in three dramatic movements, Spectre – 1914 featuring the magnificently persuasive power of soloist Anne Souder; Steps in the Street, the women of the company entering and marching in total silence at its beginning – unnerving - and Prelude to Action a ritual of preparation for what all the world sensed in 1936 was approaching conflict, to Riegger’s heroically cinematic score.

Daniel Kepl | Performing Arts Review