Martha Graham Dance Company Announces New Commissions

The Martha Graham Dance Company has announced that it has commissioned choreographers Baye & Asa and Annie Rigney to create new works for the Company. Both works will premiere as part of the Company's Joyce Theater season in spring 2023.

"We are thrilled to commission these next-generation choreographers who have such distinctive voices," said Graham Company Artistic Director Janet Eilber. "Our season theme, HUMAN/NATURE, references Graham's reverence for the body and the inherent intelligence of the natural world, and these artists have been chosen for their ongoing inquiries into the nature of being human. Though they will be making entirely contemporary statements born out of their own sensibilities and movement vocabularies, we anticipate an exciting synergy with the Graham classics."

Baye & Asa interrogate systemic inequities, and contemporize ancient allegories, shaping characters that are righteous, often helpless, and fated to their cultural position. Their work for the Company will explore these themes through rhythmic, energetic movement that illuminates contemporary issues around inequity.

Rigney's work will explore the concept of the Edge Effect. Rigney has said she is interested in looking at the body as an ecosystem, and exploring what happens when it collides, merges with, and melts into another body. "Is there a third unique quality that can only exist as a result of our physical overlap and entanglement? What does this look like explored through dance?"

About the Artists

Baye & Asa is a company creating movement art projects directed and choreographed by Amadi 'Baye' Washington and Sam 'Asa' Pratt. The duo grew up together in New York City, and that shared history is the mother of their work. Hip-Hop and African dance languages are the foundation of their technique. The rhythms of these techniques inform the way they energetically confront contemporary dance and theater. They have presented live work at The Joyce Theater, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the 92nd Street Y, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Jacob's Pillow, DanceHouse Vancouver, Blacklight Summit, and Battery Dance Festival. They were selected as one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch" for 2022. Their film work has won numerous awards and been presented internationally.

Annie Rigney is a New York-based choreographer, Gaga teacher, and Ilan Lev Method therapist. She has danced with the Batsheva Ensemble, Inbal Pinto, and Avshalom Pollak Dance Company, and spent many years performing in Punchdrunk's New York City production of Sleep No More. Rigney was a guest choreographer for the fall 2021 concert at SUNY Purchase, and her work has been presented by the Batsheva Studios in Tel Aviv, at Joyce Soho, Arts on Site, the Berkeley Repertory Theater, and the University of the Arts. Her choreographic work Galithea was recently featured as a part of the 92nd Street Y's Future Dance Festival and was presented at The Joyce Theater by the Martha Graham Dance Company. Rigney operates a private practice in the Ilan Lev Method, treating dancers and other artists for injury and functional limitations and teaches regularly in and around the New York area.

About Martha Graham Dance Company

The Martha Graham Dance Company has been a leader in the development of contemporary dance since its founding in 1926. Today, the Company is embracing a new programming vision that showcases masterpieces by Graham alongside newly commissioned works by contemporary artists. With programs that unite the work of choreographers across time within a rich historical and thematic narrative, the Company is actively working to create new platforms for contemporary dance and multiple points of access for audiences.

Since its inception, the Martha Graham Dance Company has received international acclaim from audiences in more than 50 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The Company has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, the Paris Opera House, Covent Garden, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as at the base of the Great Pyramids in Egypt and in the ancient Herod Atticus Theatre on the Acropolis in Athens. In addition, the Company has also produced several award-winning films broadcast on PBS and around the world. For more information about the Company, visit: www.marthagraham.org.