When I was a student at NYU, 1959-1962, I would take dance classes at the now gone Graham School in the East 60’s. It was a beautiful studio one, complete with low Noguchi benches, a wall of mirrors, and a baby grand piano. Musicians, with no scores in front of them, played glorious, improvisational tunes. This was a temple for learning the Graham technique. There was a coterie of teachers who were also dancers in Martha’s company. Each had a uniquely different point of view of the technique. When Martha taught class, in her black Chinese robes, she spoke poetically to her students. Bertram Ross, her longtime leading man, was often the demonstrator. You would do back falls and recoveries listening to her soft voice quoting Shakespeare. She was magic and such a presence to behold; you thought you could do anything she asked of you.
Fast forward to 1968, I was asked by Jean Rosenthal to stage manage for the Graham Company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The catch was I had to be a babysitter for the French production manager, who was a heavy drinker. Martha was coming to the end of her dance career but she was still performing. I remember this period as having a lot of drama on and off the stage.
BAM Opera House, New York: Co-directors: Bertram Ross, Robert Cohan
Conductor: Eugene Lester, Lighting: Jean Rosenthal
Dancers: Bertram Ross, Helen McGehee, Robert Cohan, Mary Hinkson, Matt Turney, Robert Powell, Clive Thompson, William Louther, Dan Wagoner, Noemi Lapzeson, Takako Asakawa, Phyllis Gutelius, Moss Cohen, Judith Hogan, Diane Gray, Judith Leifer, Dawn Suzuki, Yuriko Kimura, Robert Dodson, Kenneth Pearl, Hugh Appet, Guillermo Gonzales, Linda Hodes
Repertory: “Alcestis,” “The Plain of Prayer,” “Seraphic Dialogue”
In 1977, I stage managed the Martha Graham Dance Company on Broadway at the Lunt Fontanne Theatre. It was a brand -new company under completely new management.Choreography: Martha Graham, Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan
Ron Protas : General Manager , Manager :Cynthia Parker
Costumes: Martha Graham, Rex WhistlerSets: Isamu Noguchi
Conductors: Stanley Sussman, Robert Irving
Lighting Designers: Jean Rosenthal, Nicholas Cernovitch
Music: Louis Horst, Norman Dello-Joio, Eugene Lester, Aaron Copeland, Hunter Johnson, Meyer Kupeferman
Repertory: Graham’s “Adorations,” “Errand Into the Maze,” “Primitive Mysteries,” “Appalachian Spring,” “O Thou Desire Who Art About to Sing,” “El Penitente,” “Diversion of Angels,” “Seraphic Dialogue,” and “Deaths and Entrances”; MacMillan’s “Romeo and Juliet Balcony Scene Pas de Deux” (courtesy of American Ballet Theatre and performed by Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, guest artists); Ashton’s “The Wise Virgins” (performed by Margot Fonteyn and the Graham Company)
Dancers: William Carter, Mario Delamo, Janet Eilber, Margot Fonteyn, Diane Gray, Phyllis Gutelius, Linda Hodes, Bonnie Oda Homsey, Yuriko Kimura, Pearl Lang, Peggy Lyman, Daniel Maloney, Elisa Monte, Erid Newton, Rudolf Nureyev, Peter Sparling, Tim Wengard with Jessica Chao, David Chase, Christine Dakin, Susan Mclain, Bert Terborg, and Henry Yu
With Martha, in 1976-1981 we toured domestically and abroad, playing Covent Gardens at the Royal Opera House in London one day, then traveling to Cairo in Egypt, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in Israel, Amman in Jordan, and to cities in the former Yugoslavia. After a domestic tour in 1978, we opened the Tutankhamun Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, performing “Frescoes” in front of the Temple of Dendur in the Egyptian Wing. Ron Protas, the general manager, was being impossible as usual. The only thing that made me smile was the thought of throwing him in one of the crypts and closing it forever.
In 1980, we played at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Lincoln Kristen wanted to present Martha with flowers on stage. When I tried to warn her this would be happening, she said, in no uncertain terms: “Not on my stage,” reminding me how she was pushed out of being one of the resident companies at the State Theater by these very men.
The rest of the 1980/81 season we spent touring in the US and Mexico, Germany, Canada.
A few quotes from Martha:
“If you don’t trust the restaurant, don’t let them open the egg”
Speaking to her dancers: “You’re all like flies in amber” or once in awhile she commanded that “they shouldn’t sweat.” “The body says what words cannot.” “Movement never lies. Dance is the hidden language of the soul, of the body.” “Freedom to a dancer means discipline. That is what technique is for..Liberation.”
Once, after a particularly energetic studio rehearsal of “Phaedra”, she said: “I know you’re trying to help, but it is kitsch.” I was in the studio when Isamu Noguchi brought it the set for Phaedra in what I would call his duck hunting attire. He placed the three sculptural objects, one of which was a bench like sculpture down stage center. He never said one word and left with dispatch. She never changed the relationship of these pieces.
My time with Graham came to an end in 1982, when I was dismissed just before the City Center season, as another casualty of Ron Protas’ reign. Protas was not well liked by company members, as he was not a dancer and had no reason to be involved with the company. He was a photographer who mainly photographed celebrities. Initially, Graham did not like Protas. But when Graham’s health began to fail, as a result of what seemed like alcoholism and depression over having to retire from her performing career, Protas stepped in and nursed Graham back to health.
Shortly after she passed away in 1991, the Graham organization was tied up in court battles with Ron Protas, who sued the company for the ownership of over 70 of Martha’s ballets. The court eventually ruled against him with the exception of “Seraphic Dialogue”.
As the legal troubles continued to plague the company, I became increasingly concerned about the possibility of Martha’s work never being seen again. In 2002, I enlisted the help of my friend Richard Daniels and that of Madeline Nichols, the head of the dance library, to devise a seminar called “Martha Graham: Steps of a Giant – Insiders’ Stories”. This was a series of three intimate, public talks with former Graham dancers and collaborators focusing on the 1940-1960 period. The artists who took part in the evolution of Graham’s dances and technique, discussed their recollected experiences.
“Clytemnestra”: a panel discussion featuring composer Halim El-Dabh, and dancers Helen McGhee(who originated the role of Electra also did the costumes for Clytemnestra, uncredited) and Ethel Winters (originated the role of Helen of Troy) with Ellen Graff and Kenneth Topping as moderators.
“Ensemble Works and Myths and Legends”: a panel discussion featuring Miriam Cole, Mary Hinkson, Linda Hodes, and Yuriko with Ellen Graff and Marnie Wood as moderators.
“Americana and Martha’s Funny Bone”: a panel discussion featuring Robert Cohan, Stuart Hodes, and Pearl Lang with Ellen Graff as moderator.
It was a labor of love and a great deal of work. Working with Martha was worth everything to me. I believe that when you work with a genius, it leaves a scar or mark in you, it changes you in ways you never forget. . I learned all my mythology from her work.
The Graham company lives on under the artistic director Janet Eilber. As I fate would have it, I have been involved with Graham works that the Juilliard school has commissioned under the dance direction of Terese Capucilli assisted by Christine Dakin. All of these women have played the roles that Martha created for herself. What a legacy they bring with their first-hand knowledge to young dancers.
