Martha Graham Google Doodle
Martha Graham`s birthday has been celebrated with another Google logo today and as you might already know, and regarding to Wikipedia seventy-five years ago , Martha Graham performed at the brand-new Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Then, as now, her work remains triumphant and nearly indescribable. Tuesday night, her 85-year-old company returned to a packed FAC for a beautiful and moving performance.
On April 20, 1936, the doors of the Fine Arts Center swung open to the public for the first time and Colorado Springs was ground zero for cutting edge.
The names involved in that weekend fete of fetes are emblematic of modernity now. Sculptor Alexander Calder designed a set for composer Erik Satie’s “Socrate.” Architect Frank Lloyd Wright lectured about the building, which was designed by New Mexico architect John Gaw Meem.
The painting of new masters, who today don’t require a first name to be recognized – including Cezanne, Van Gogh, Renoir, Braque and Picasso – appeared in a museum exhibition. And dance icon Martha Graham trod the boards barefoot and in a black, cloth tube. On Tuesday, Graham’s company returns with a sold-out performance to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the center. Anniversary events continue through summer.
While the company has geared itself to performing in events such as this (“It’s not so unusual because they were touring quite a bit”), “it’s rare that we have something like a 75th anniversary,” says artistic director Janet Eilber, “and that she performed there for the opening performances.”
Along with other classic and modern works, the company will perform “Lamentation Variations,” a contemporary riff on possibly Graham’s most famous work, “Lamentation.” It featured Graham, ever angular and elegant, manipulating her body and the cloth in stark demonstrations of grief.
For “Variations,” the company gave 3 young choreographers a tape of the original and asked them to create a new piece inspired by it, but one also constrained by its no-set, no-props minimalism.
“They came out so beautifully,” says Eilber, adding that it’s a challenge to keep Martha Graham ’s work relevant. “We travel the world with them. We’re up to five now and we just commissioned another one.”
Like groundbreaking contemporaries Picasso and Stravinsky, Graham was interested in the essentials of expression. In pieces like “Lamentation,” which she performed here, Graham effectively stripped away the niceties of style, and revealed a kind of rawness at odds with the cool athleticism and prettied emotions of ballet.
