Martha Graham Dance Company Student Matinee Pre-event Video Transcript

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Post-Performance Q&A

After the show, you’ll have a chance to ask the artists some questions.

1. Go to slido.com
2. Enter Event Code: NORTHROP
3. After the performance: Submit your question

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Remember to keep your feet on the floor during the performance and no gum/food/drink in the theater.

Live Performance Reminder

The performers can see and hear you, just like you can see and hear them. Please limit talking or even whispering.

Audience Guidelines

Please turn your phone OFF before the performance starts.

Did you know?

Exposure to the arts help K-12 students perform higher on standardized tests and achieve higher GPAs.

In Minnesota it is the law that K-12 schools provide arts education to students for a more well-rounded education.

Welcome the Martha Graham Dance Company and South High School to the Northrop Stage!

About the Company 

• The Martha Graham Dance Company is a pioneering and celebrated modern dance company founded in 1926 by Martha Graham.
• Renowned for its groundbreaking style, the company performs repertoire of Graham’s 181 ballets and new works by contemporary choreographers.
• It is the oldest dance company in the United States.

Martha Graham 1894-1991

About Martha Graham

• Martha Graham was an American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer whose style, the Graham technique, revolutionized the dance world and is still taught worldwide.
• Martha Graham’s dancing and choreography exposed the depths of human emotion through movements that were sharp, angular, jagged and direct.
• Martha Graham’s ballets were inspired by a wide variety of sources, including modern painting, the American frontier, religious ceremonies of Native Americans and Greek mythology.
• Many of her most important roles portray great women of history and mythology: Clytemnestra, Medea, Joan of Arc and Emily Dickinson.
• Graham danced and taught for more than 70 years. She was the first dancer to perform at the White House, and receive the highest civilian award of the United States: the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction.
• In her lifetime, she received honors ranging from the Key to the City of Paris to Japan's Imperial Order of the Precious Crown.

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.” — Martha Graham

The Graham Technique

• In developing her technique, Martha Graham experimented with basic human movement, beginning with contraction and release.
• Using these principles as the foundation for her technique, she built a vocabulary of movement that would “increase the emotional activity of the dancer’s body.”
• Graham technique utilizes fundamental principles of contraction and release, the shift of weight and spirals that create dramatic tension.

Meet the Company

• Artistic Director Janet Eilber leads the company of 18 dancers. 
• The Company has performed all over the world including ancient locations such as at the base of the Great Pyramids in Egypt and in the ancient Odeon of Herodes Atticus theatre on the Acropolis in Athens.
• The dancers come from all over the globe: some as far as South Korea and Italy, and some as close as southern Wisconsin!

What You Will See & Hear 

“Appalachian Spring” (1944)

• “Appalachian Spring” is a ballet created by Martha Graham and composer Aaron Copland.
• The story is set in 19th-century Pennsylvania, focusing on a young couple on their wedding day.
• Created as World War II was drawing to an end, the ballet captured the imagination of Americans who were beginning to believe in a more prosperous future.
• The ballet explores themes of hope and new beginnings through the challenges of early American frontier life.
• Copland’s musical composition for this ballet earned him a Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1945.

“We the People” (2024)

• “We the People” was created by choreographer Jamar Roberts and musician and composer Rhiannon Giddens.
• “We the People” is a dance of 21st-century Americana references that reverberates with our history. 

"’We the People’ hopes to serve as a reminder that the power for collective change belongs to the people.” — Jamar Roberts

• Listen for the historic sound of American folk music from two-time Grammy Award winner, MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient and Pulitzer Prize winner, Rhiannon Giddens.

“Our Own American Document” (2026)

• In 1938, Martha Graham choreographed "American Document," a work inspired by essential American texts that addressed the question, “What is America?”
• This groundbreaking dance-theater piece paired spoken word with movement and featured Graham’s first male dancer, Erick Hawkins.
• “Our Own American Document” is a collaborative creative project co-created by Cynthia Stanley and Johnnie Mercer, inspired by Martha Graham’s work.
• South High School students, guided by curriculum and the Martha Graham School, have created their own dance piece inspired by the themes of Graham's “American Document.”

Join us for more exciting music!

WITNESS: Eyes Still on the Prize II

Friday, Feb. 20, 10:15 a.m. and 12:45 p.m.

We gratefully acknowledge the support from: 

Northrop activities are made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

RBC Wealth Management

Enjoy the Show!

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