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| Lamentation (Graham) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Lamentation |
| Choreographer | Martha Graham |
| Composer | Zoltán Kodály |
| Premiere | 1930 |
| Company | Martha Graham Dance Company |
| Genre | Modern dance |
| Location | Little Theatre, New York City |
Lamentation (Graham) is a modern dance solo choreographed by Martha Graham to a score by Zoltán Kodály. Premiered in 1930, the work became emblematic of Graham's radical innovations within modern dance and the interwar cultural milieu of New York City, influencing performers, choreographers, and cultural institutions throughout the twentieth century.
Graham created the solo during a period of experimentation alongside figures such as Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, Ted Shawn, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman in the American modern dance renewal that intersected with visual artists like Isamu Noguchi, composers such as Aaron Copland and Darius Milhaud, and writers including Edna St. Vincent Millay and T. S. Eliot. Influenced by psychoanalytic thought associated with Sigmund Freud and contemporaneous theatrical innovations from Konstantin Stanislavski and Bertolt Brecht, Graham explored contraction and release as part of her movement vocabulary while engaging with themes resonant in the aftermath of events like the First World War and cultural debates happening at institutions such as Barnard College and Bennington College.
The premiere took place at the Little Theatre (New York City) in 1930 with the piece entering the repertory of the Martha Graham Dance Company. The solo toured to venues associated with the New School for Social Research, Carnegie Hall, and summer programs at Bennington College and later at festivals curated by producers like Serge Diaghilev-influenced impresarios and managers from companies such as the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. Key performers after Graham included protégés and company members who trained at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance and collaborators tied to institutions like the Juilliard School, Yale School of Drama, and American Dance Festival.
The choreography centers on a seated, draped figure demonstrating Graham's signature contraction technique developed contemporaneously with codified practices at studios led by Graham and peers such as Dorothy Humphrey. The movement vocabulary contrasts linear formulations associated with Ballets Russes traditions and emphasizes tension comparable to works by Pina Bausch and later postmodernist choreographers like Merce Cunningham and Paul Taylor. Analysts from Dance Observer circles and scholars affiliated with Columbia University, Harvard University, and New York University have linked the solo's spatial orientation and kineticism to theatrical precedents found in productions by Max Reinhardt and visual design gestures by Isamu Noguchi.
Graham selected a score by Zoltán Kodály that foregrounds austerity and folk-inflected motifs similar to music promoted by institutions like the Bartók Archive and publications of Universal Edition. The costume — a tubular, body-enveloping garment — was a collaboration reflecting dialogues with sculptors and designers linked to Isamu Noguchi and influenced by avant-garde aesthetics circulating in galleries such as the Whitney Museum of American Art and Museum of Modern Art. Set minimalism paralleled stagecraft experiments by companies like The Group Theatre and designers informed by Adolphe Appia and Gordon Craig.
Contemporary critics from outlets akin to The New York Times, arts periodicals and journals connected to The New Yorker and universities including Princeton University emphasized the solo's intensity and its break from European ballet conventions associated with figures such as Anna Pavlova and Sergei Diaghilev. Over decades, scholars at Smithsonian Institution, commentators involved with the Kennedy Center, and dance historians writing for presses like Oxford University Press and Routledge have framed the work as foundational to American modernism in dance, influencing choreographers across generations including Alvin Ailey, Paul Taylor (choreographer), Trisha Brown, and Bill T. Jones. Debates in academic symposia at Brown University and University of California, Los Angeles have examined the piece's intersections with gender studies, performance theory, and aesthetics promoted by critics like John Martin and historians such as Sally Banes.
The solo has been revived by the Martha Graham Dance Company and reconstructed by dancers trained in the Graham technique across institutions such as The Juilliard School, Royal Academy of Dance, and festivals including the American Dance Festival. Film and video documentation exists in archives held by organizations like the Library of Congress, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and media collections curated by the Museum of Modern Art. Notable performers in revivals include company members who studied under Graham and guest artists affiliated with universities and companies such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Batsheva Dance Company, and conservatories in Europe and Asia.
Category:Works by Martha Graham Category:Modern dance works Category:1930 works