Martha Graham Dance Company Performs Masterworks at Kingsbury Hall 4/17

For over 80 years, the name Martha Graham has been synonymous with American modern dance. Performing some of Graham's classic works, including "Appalachian Spring," this internationally acclaimed company, called "one of the seven wonders of the artistic universe" by the Washington Post, celebrates both the past and future of this distinctly American art form. Martha Graham Dance Company will perform at Kingsbury Hall on the University of Utah campus on Saturday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $45.50 - $29.50 and are available by calling 801-581-7100 or visiting www.kingtix.com.

Prior to the public performance, the Company will also be performing a matinee for students from around the state. Kingsbury Hall received grant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts to provide transportation for students from rural areas in the state, where access to world-class professional arts performances is rare, to attend. Approximately 700 students from Grand, Duchesne, Millard, Nebo Daggett, Sevier, Carbon, Tooele and Washington Counties will be able to attend the performance.

Both the evening and matinee performances will feature the University of Utah's Performing Dance Company performing Panorama, a work originally reconstructed by Yuriko, memorable soloist dancer and former artistic director of the Martha Graham Dance Company. As timeless as it is timely, Panorama (created in 1935) is a protest piece, delivering a message designed to awaken the senses of social consciousness. Graham creates an uncompromising force of movement as 33 phalanxes, dressed in red, are deployed to fly, swirl and bound throughout the space. The University of Utah's Department of Modern Dance is one of the select few dance programs in the nation awarded the rights to reconstruct a masterwork of Martha Graham.

The evening performance will also include:

Prelude and Revolt: Denishawn to Graham (1906 - 1936) Martha Graham came to the Denishawn School as a student in 1916 and performed with the group until 1924. Prelude and Revolt is suite of dances that traces the emergence of Graham's unique theater and distinctive movement vocabulary from these Denishawn beginnings to the stark, explosive imagery of "Steps in the Street" from 1936.

Lamentation Variations (2007) This piece was conceived to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11 and premiered on that date in 2007. The work opens with a film of Martha Graham from the early 1930s performing her iconic solo. The variations that follow were developed under specific creative conditions by choreographers Richard Move, Larry Keigwin, and Bulareyaung Pagarlava. Though it was planned to be performed on only one occasion, the audience reception for Lamentation Variations was such that it has been added to the permanent repertory of the Martha Graham Dance Company.

Errand Into the Maze (1947) With a score by Gian Carlo Menotti and set design by Isamu Noguchi, the dance was choreographed as a duet for Martha Graham and Mark Ryder. It is loosely derived from the myth of Theseus, who journeys into the labyrinth to confront the Minotaur, a creature who is half man and half beast. In Errand Into the Maze, Martha Graham retells the tale from the perspective of Ariadne, who descends into the labyrinth to conquer the Minotaur. Substituting a heroine for the hero of Greek mythology in her dance, Martha Graham created a female protagonist who would confront the beast of fear, not just once, but three times, before finally overpowering him.

Appalachian Spring (1944) In 1942, Martha Graham received a commission from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation for a new ballet to be premiered at the Library of Congress. Aaron Copland was to compose the score. Graham called the new dance Appalachian Spring, after a poem by Hart Crane, but for Copland it always remained "Ballet for Martha." Choreographed as the war in Europe was drawing to end, it captured the imagination of Americans who were beginning to believe in a more prosperous future, a future in which men and women would be united again. With its simple tale of a new life in a new land, the dance embodied hope. Critics called Appalachian Spring "shining and joyous," "a testimony to the simple fineness of the human spirit." It has since become one of the most celebrated and recognizable works of American modern dance ever created.

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