Martha Graham Dance Company

"One of the seven wonders of the artistic universe," - Washington Post

"They seem able to do anything, and to make it look easy as well as poetic." - Los Angeles Times

Founded in 1926 by dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, the Martha Graham Dance Company is celebrating its 80th Anniversary Season by touring a special program chronicling Graham's emergence as a singular artist entitled Prelude and Revolt: Early Masterpieces of American Dance.

The company has provided a training ground for some of modern dance's most illustrious performers and choreographers. Martha Graham herself danced with the company since its inception until the late 1960s. Other company alumni include Merce Cunningham, Pearl Lang, Elisa Monte and Paul Taylor. Celebrities who have joined the company in performance include Mikhail Baryshnikov, Claire Bloom, Liza Minnelli, Kathleen Turner and Betty Bloomer, who, after dancing with the company in 1938, became better known as First Lady Betty Ford.

A training ground for some of modern dance's most illustrious performers and choreographers, the Martha Graham Dance Company has received international acclaim from audiences in over 50 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The company has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, the Paris Opera House, Covent Garden and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as at the base of the Great Pyramids of Egypt and in the ancient Herod Atticus Theatre on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. The company has also produced several award-winning films, broadcast on PBS and around the world.

Martha Graham's uniquely American vision and creative genius earned her numerous awards and honors, including the Medal of Freedom and being named a National Treasure by President Gerald Ford and being designated one of the first recipients of the National Medal of Arts by President Ronald Reagan.

Prelude and Revolt: Early Masterpieces of American Dance is a montage of media and live performance capturing Graham's indelible influence on American art. The repertory spans eight decades, showcasing the scope and beauty of Graham's work, from the power and simplicity of the all-woman group works and early solos to the acclaimed classics. Featuring a wide variety of her sources of inspiration, including modern painting, heroic women, the American frontier and Greek mythology, this performance includes sets by Isamu Noguchi, costumes by Martha Graham, Halston and Calvin Klein and original scores by American composers Aaron Copland, Louis Horst and Henry Cowell. The tour is made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts' American Masterpieces Dance Initiative, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts.

Late seating policy applies.