Martha Graham Dance Company | Casting for January 24, 2026

 

DIVERSION OF ANGELS

 

Choreography and Costumes by Martha Graham

Music by Norman Dello Joio^†

Original lighting by Jean Rosenthal

Adapted by Beverly Emmons

 

Premiere: August 13, 1948, Palmer Auditorium, New London, CT

 

Martha Graham once described Diversion of Angels as three aspects of love: the couple in white represents mature love in perfect balance; red, erotic love; and yellow, adolescent love. The dance follows no story. Its action takes place in the imaginary garden love creates for itself. The ballet was originally called Wilderness Stair.

 

“It is the place of the Rock and the Ladder, the raven, the blessing, the tempter, the rose. It is the wish of the single-hearted, the undivided; play after the spirit’s labor; games, flights, fancies, configurations of the lover’s intention; the believed Possibility, at once strenuous and tender; humors of innocence, garlands, evangels, Joy on the Wilderness Stair, diversion of angels.” – Ben Belitt

 

The Couple in White    Leslie Andrea Williams, Ethan Palma
The Couple in Red    Devin Loh, Antonio Leone

The Couple in Yellow    Marzia Memoli, Zachary Jeppsen-Toy
Ane Arrieta   Meagan King   Amanda Moreira   Jai Perez  Laurel Dalley Smith 

 

†This new recording, engineered by Fred Vogler and conducted by Christopher Rountree, was commissioned by and recorded at The Soraya at CSUN and is used by arrangement with Carl Fischer, Inc., publisher and copyright owner.

 

LAMENTATION

 

Choreography and Costume by Martha Graham
Music by Zoltán Kodály^†
Original lighting by Martha Graham
Adapted by Beverly Emmons

 

Premiere: January 8, 1930, Maxine Elliott’s Theatre, New York City

 

Xin Ying

 

This presentation of Lamentation has been made possible by a gift from Francis Mason in honor of William D. Witter. Additional support was provided by The Harkness Foundation for Dance.

 

^†Neun Klavierstücke, op. 3. no. 2

 

Lamentation premiered in New York City on January 8, 1930, at Maxine Elliot’s Theater, to music by the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály. The dance is performed almost entirely from a seated position, with the dancer encased in a tube of purple jersey. The diagonals and tensions formed by the dancer’s body struggling within the material create a moving sculpture, a portrait which presents the very essence of grief. The figure in this dance is neither human nor animal, neither male nor female: it is grief itself.

 

According to Martha Graham, after one performance of the work she was visited by a woman in the audience who had recently seen her child killed in an accident. Viewing Lamentation enabled her to grieve, as she realized that “grief was a dignified and valid emotion and that I could yield to it without shame.”

 

 

EN MASSE

 

Choreography by Hope Boykin

Music by Leonard Bernstein^†

Additional music by Christopher Rountree

Costume design by Karen Young

Lighting design by Al Crawford

Assistants to the Choreographer: Cameron Harris and Terri Ayanna Wright

 

Premiere: Oct 4, 2025 at The Soraya, Northridge, CA.

 

Zachary Jeppsen-Toy   Meagan King   Antonio Leone
Jai Perez   Anne Souder   Leslie Andrea Williams   Xin Ying

 

 

En Masse was commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, University of Michigan, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Andris Nelsons, Music Director, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts and the California State University of Northridge.

 

By arrangement with Boosey and Hawkes, Inc., Sole Agent for Leonard Bernstein Music Publishing Company LLC, publisher and copyright owner.

 

Music recorded at Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts and the California State University of Northridge.

 

^†“For Martha (Variations on a Theme by Leonard Bernstein)”

Original music by Leonard Bernstein

Additional composition by Christopher Rountree

 

“Suite for Dance from MASS”

By Leonard Bernstein

Lyrics for ‘A Simple Song’ by Stephen Schwartz and Leonard Bernstein

Arranged by Christopher Rountree

CHRONICLE

 

Choreography and Costumes by Martha Graham

Music by Wallingford Riegger^†

Original lighting by Jean Rosenthal

Lighting for reconstruction (“Steps in the Street”) by David Finley

Lighting for reconstruction (“Spectre–1914”, “Prelude to Action”) by Steven L. Shelley

 

Premiere: December 20, 1936, Guild Theater, New York City

 

Chronicle does not attempt to show the actualities of war; rather does it, by evoking war’s images, set forth the fateful prelude to war, portray the devastation of spirit which it leaves in its wake, and suggest an answer. (Original program note)

 

I. Spectre–1914

Drums—Red Shroud—Lament

 

Xin Ying

 

II. Steps in the Street

Devastation—Homelessness—Exile

 

Anne Souder 

Ane Arrieta    Meagan King   Devin Loh  

Tiffany Marshall  Marzia Memoli   Amanda Moreira  

Grace Sautter    Laurel Dalley Smith   Leslie Andrea Williams 

III. Prelude to Action

Unity—Pledge to the Future

 

Xin Ying   Anne Souder 

Ane Arrieta   Meagan King  Devin Loh  

Tiffany Marshall  Marzia Memoli   Amanda Moreira   

Grace Sautter   Laurel Dalley Smith  Leslie Andrea Williams 

 

 

“Spectre–1914” reconstructed in 1994 by Terese Capucilli and Carol Fried, from film clips and Barbara Morgan photographs. “Steps in the Street” reconstructed in 1989 by Yuriko and Martha Graham, from the Julien Bryan film discovered by Dr. Barry Fischer. “Prelude to Action” reconstructed in 1994 by Sophie Maslow, with Terese Capucilli, Carol Fried, and Diane Gray, from film clips and Morgan photographs. 

 

^†This new recording, engineered by Fred Vogler and conducted by Christopher Rountree, was commissioned by and recorded at The Soraya at CSUN.

Finale from New Dance, Opus 18b (for “Steps in the Street”), originally composed for Doris Humphrey,
orchestrated by Justin Dello Joio, used by arrangement with Associated Music Publishers, Inc., publisher
and copyright owner. Additional orchestrations by Stanley Sussman. 

 

The 2025-2026 revival of Chronicle was commissioned by New York City Center.

CHRONICLE (1936)

 

Chronicle premiered at the Guild Theater in New York City on December 20, 1936. The dance was a response to the menace of fascism in Europe; earlier that year, Graham had refused an invitation to take part in the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, stating: “I would find it impossible to dance in Germany at the present time. So many artists whom I respect and admire have been persecuted, have been deprived of the right to work for ridiculous and unsatisfactory reasons, that I should consider it impossible to identify myself, by accepting the invitation, with the regime that has made such things possible. In addition, some of my concert group would not be welcomed in Germany” (a reference to the fact that many members of her group were Jewish). “Chronicle does not attempt to show the actualities of war; rather does it, by evoking war’s images, set forth the fateful prelude to war, portray the devastation of spirit which it leaves in its wake, and suggest an answer.” This is one of the very few dances Martha Graham made which can be said to express explicitly political ideas, but, unlike Immediate Tragedy (1937) and Deep Song (1937), dances she made in response to the Spanish Civil War, this dance is not a realistic depiction of events. The intent is to universalize the tragedy of war. The original dance, with a score by Wallingford Riegger, was forty minutes in length, divided into five sections: “Dances before Catastrophe: Spectre–1914 and Masque,” “Dances after Catastrophe: Steps in the Street and Tragic Holiday,” and “Prelude to Action.” The dance disappeared from the repertory in 1937 and was thought to be lost.  In 1985, Barry Fischer discovered a film by Julien Bryan of the original cast of “Steps in the Street”, which he reconstructed at NYU as part of his doctoral research.  Since that discovery, the Company has reconstructed and now performs “Spectre–1914,” “Steps in the Street” and “Prelude to Action.”

—ELLEN GRAFF

 

DIVERSION OF ANGELS (1948)

 

Diversion of Angels, originally titled Wilderness Stair, premiered at the Palmer Auditorium of Connecticut College on August 13, 1948. The title, as well as a set piece designed by Isamu Noguchi suggestive of desert terrain, was discarded after the first performance, and the dance was reconceived as a plotless ballet. Diversion of Angels is set to a romantic score by Norman Dello Joio and takes its themes from the infinite aspects of love. The Couple in Red embodies romantic love and “the ecstasy of the contraction”; the Couple in White, mature love; and the Couple in Yellow, a flirtatious and adolescent love.

 

Martha Graham recalled that when she first saw the work of the modern artist Wassily Kandinsky, she was astonished by his use of color, a bold slash of red across a blue background. She determined to make a dance that would express this. Diversion of Angels is that dance, and the Girl in Red, dashing across the stage, is the streak of red paint bisecting the Kandinsky canvas.                                                                                   

—ELLEN GRAFF

 

 

EN MASSE (2025)

 

En Masse (2025) was commissioned to celebrate GRAHAM100, the 100th anniversary of the Martha Graham Dance Company.  This momentous occasion aligns with the 250th anniversary of the United States, and we turned to long-time collaborators Thor Steingraber of the Soraya and Christopher Rountree of Wild Up to identify and develop a new work that would resonate with our past, present and future.  We decided to return to a collaboration that began in the late 1980s between two iconic American artists -- Martha Graham and Leonard Bernstein.  The archival records reveal that the two considered taking inspiration from a wide range of American social issues, but finally, the work did not come to fruition. 

However, in the course of our research, the Leonard Bernstein Organization uncovered a very short, unknown piece of music in the "Martha/Lenny" file titled Vivace that they believe Bernstein composed for Martha Graham.

The score for En Masse is an expansion of Vivace by Christopher Rountree and titled “For Martha (Variations on a Theme by Leonard Bernstein)”. It is joined by a new arrangement of excerpts from Bernstein's MASS also by Rountree.

As for the choreography, we turned to the wonderful Hope Boykin who has danced and created to Bernstein's music on many occasions.  She has choreographed a work for seven of our dancers and offers these thoughts about En Masse:

 

Together we try, we fall, we restart, and grow. Together we make change, learn, and build. Alone, however, our failures scream and endurance is tested. In community, we thrive, lean and depend on one another. "En Masse", shares how we are often bound by our limitations, and the process toward release is not easy, but worth it.

---Hope Boykin

ABOUT MARTHA GRAHAM

Martha Graham has had a deep and lasting impact on American art and culture. She single-handedly defined contemporary dance as a uniquely American art form, which the nation has in turn shared with the world. Crossing artistic boundaries, she collaborated with and commissioned work from the leading visual artists, musicians, and designers of her day, including sculptor Isamu Noguchi and composers Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and Gian Carlo Menotti.

Graham’s groundbreaking style grew from her experimentation with the elemental movements of contraction and release. By focusing on the basic activities of the human form, she enlivened the body with raw, electric emotion. The sharp, angular, and direct movements of her technique were a dramatic departure from the predominant style of the time.

Graham influenced generations of choreographers that included Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor, and Twyla Tharp, altering the scope of dance. Classical ballet dancers Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, and Mikhail Baryshnikov sought her out to broaden their artistry. Artists of all genres were eager to study and work with Graham—she taught actors including Bette Davis, Kirk Douglas, Madonna, Liza Minnelli, Gregory Peck, Tony Randall, Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, and Joanne Woodward to utilize their bodies as expressive instruments.

During her long and illustrious career, Graham created 181 dance compositions. During the Bicentennial she was granted the United States’ highest civilian honor, The Medal of Freedom. In 1998, TIME Magazine named her the “Dancer of the Century.” The first dancer to perform at the White House and to act as a cultural ambassador abroad, she captured the spirit of a nation. “No artist is ahead of his time,” she said. “He is his time. It is just that the others are behind the time.”

 

ABOUT THE COMPANY

 

The Martha Graham Dance Company has been a leader in the evolving art form of modern dance since its founding in 1926. It is both the oldest dance company in the United States and the oldest integrated dance company.

 

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 House, 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 Odeon of Herodes Atticus theater on the Acropolis in Athens. In addition, the Company has also produced several award-winning films broadcast on PBS and around the world.

 

Though Martha Graham herself is the best-known alumna of her company, the Company has provided a training ground for some of modern dance’s most celebrated performers and choreographers. Former members of the Company include Merce Cunningham, Erick Hawkins, Paul Taylor, John Butler and Glen Tetley. Among celebrities who have joined the Company in performance are Mikhail Baryshnikov, Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, Maya Plisetskaya, Tiler Peck, Misty Copeland, Herman Cornejo and Aurelie Dupont.

 

In recent years, the Company has challenged expectations and experimented with a wide range of offerings beyond its mainstage performances. It has created a series of intimate in-studio events, forged unusual creative partnerships with the likes of SITI Company, Performa, the New Museum, Barney's, and Siracusa’s Greek Theater Festival (to name a few); created substantial digital offerings with Google Arts and Culture, YouTube, and Cennarium; and created a model for reaching new audiences through social media.  The astonishing list of artists who have created works for the Graham dancers in the last decade reads like a catalog of must-see choreographers:

 

Kyle Abraham, Aszure Barton, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Lucinda Childs, Marie Chouinard, Michelle Dorrance, Nacho Duato, Mats Ek, Andonis Foniadakis, Liz Gerring, Larry Keigwin, Michael Kliën, Pontus Lidberg, Lil Buck, Lar Lubovitch, Josie Moseley, Richard Move, Bulareyaung Pagarlava, Annie-B Parson, Yvonne Rainer, Sonya Tayeh, Doug Varone, Luca Vegetti, Gwen Welliver and Robert Wilson.

 

The current company dancers hail from around the world and, while grounded in their Graham core training, can also slip into the style of contemporary choreographers like a second skin, bringing technical brilliance and artistic nuance to all they do -- from brand new works to Graham classics and those from early pioneers such as Isadora Duncan, Jane Dudley, Anna Sokolow, and Mary Wigman.  “Some of the most skilled and powerful dancers you can ever hope to see,” according to the Washington Post last year.  “One of the great companies of the world,” says The New York Times, while Los Angeles Times notes, “They seem able to do anything, and to make it look easy as well as poetic.”

 

Major support for the Martha Graham Dance Company is provided by

The Arnhold Foundation

Barbara and Rodgin Cohen

The Hayes Foundation

Howard Gilman Foundation

Christine Jowers and Rob Friedman

National Endowment for the Arts

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

New York State Council on the Arts

Dr. M. Felicity Rogers-Chapman

Judith G. Schlosser

The Shubert Foundation

Lawrence Stein

Thompson Family Foundation

Inger K. Witter

Nadia Zilkha

 

The Artists employed in this production are members of the American Guild of Musical Artists AFL-CIO.

 

In the tradition of its founder, the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance remains committed to being a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist organization, and will honor this pledge through its ongoing practices, policies and behaviors.

 

Copyright to all Martha Graham dances presented held by the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Staff

LaRue Allen, Executive Director

Janet Eilber, Artistic Director

Ben Schultz, Rehearsal Director

Blakeley White-McGuire, Rehearsal Director

Simona Ferrara, General Manager

Lauren Mosier, Company Manager

A. Apostol, Director of Development Operations

Christina Convertito, Development Associate

Jacob Larsen, Partnership Coordinator

Susan Lamb, Finance & Administrative Assistant

Melissa Sherwood, Director of Marketing

Antonio Fini, Director of Martha Graham Resources

Chloe Morrell, Production Supervisor

Yi-Chung Chen, Resident Lighting Designer

Becky Nussbaum, Associate Lighting Supervisor

Gabrielle Corrigan, Wardrobe Supervisor

Karen Young, Costume Consultant

Ashley Brown, Director of School

Tami Alesson, Dean of Students and Government Affairs

Virginie Mécène, Program Director/Director of Graham 2

Lone Larsen, Program Director

Amélie Bénard, Teens@Graham Program Director

Camille Nemoz, Administrative Assistant

Ana Sanchez, School Assistant

Janet Stapleton, Press Agent

 

Regisseurs

Miki Orihara

Virginie Mecene

Peggy Lyman

Peter Sparling

Blakeley White-McGuire

Elizabeth Auclair

Lone Larsen

Tadej Brdnik

Masha Maddux

Maxine Sherman

Martin Lofnes

Anne Souder

PeiJu Chien Pott

Amelie Bernard

 

Board of Trustees

Javier Morgado, Chair
Lorraine S. Oler, Immediate Past Chair
Barbara Cohen, Vice Chair
Judith G. Schlosser, Chair Emeritus
LaRue Allen, Executive Director
Janet Eilber, Artistic Director
Amy Blumenthal
Geoffrey D. Fallon
Christopher Jones
Christine Jowers
Nichole Perkins
Dr. M. Felicity Rogers-Chapman
Stephen M. Rooks
Lori Sackler
Lawrence Stein
Ellen Stiene

North American Representation
Jemma Lehner, Opus 3 Artists 
(https://www.opus3artists.com/)

 

International Representation

LaRue Allen

Executive Director

(lallen@marthagraham.org)

 

Alumni Search

If you or someone you know has ever performed with the Martha Graham Dance Company or attended classes at the Martha Graham School, please send us names, addresses, telephone numbers and approximate dates of membership. We will add you to our alumni mailing list and keep you apprised of alumni events and benefits. Call +1.212.229.9200 or e-mail info@marthagraham.org.

 

The Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance is a not-for-profit corporation, supported by contributions from individuals, corporations, foundations, and government agencies. Contributions in support of the Martha Graham Center will be gratefully received at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, Inc., 55 Bethune Street New York, NY 10014, or visit www.marthagraham.org/support.

 

For more information, visit www.marthagraham.org