Bringing its at-one-time revolutionary dance ideas onto the stage at the Musco Center for the Arts at Chapman University in Orange, the Martha Graham Dance Company will celebrate its 100th anniversary on Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 7:30 p.m.
Orange County is one of the many stops on this three-year-long worldwide tour that showcases many of choreographer Martha Graham’s iconic works created before her death, at the age of 96 (1991). On this superlative program is the formidable solo, “Lamentation” (1930), as well as “Diversion of Angels” (1948), “Steps in the Street” (1936) and two contemporary creations: “En Mass” (2025), choreographed by former Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater member Hope Boykin, and “Cortege 2023,” created by the dancemaking duo Baye and Asa. The latter was inspired by Graham’s “Cortège of Eagles.”
Interestingly, and, no doubt, thoughtfully selected, the non-Graham works in the show come from dance makers whose backgrounds are very different from the Graham lineage. The artist’s legacy is a symbiosis of a groundbreaking movement technique that remains a foundational experience for dancers all over the world and thematic explorations that, often, still resonate today. The current company of highly trained dancers are following what promotional materials describe as “a programming vision that showcases masterpieces by Graham alongside newly commissioned works.”
Following that line of heritage, “Steps in the Street,” which describes “the isolation and desolation left in the wake of war” is performed by dancers from Chapman University’s department of dance.
—Benn Widdey, Culture Spot LA
LOCATION:
415 N. Glassell, Orange 92866
TICKETS:
$58 – $98
https://muscocenter.org/Online/mapSelect.asp
INFO:
Photo by Melissa Sherwood