Martha Graham Dance Company On Film

Wicklow ScreenDance Laboratory Festival 2022

Wicklow ScreenDance Laboratory Festival 2022 returns on April 16^th for its finale: a Day-at-Mermaid. WSL is a yearly event that celebrates the art of Dance in all its forms: training, performance, screendance, discussion and craft with particular emphasis on film and live dance.

Martha Graham Dance Company On Film

Martha Graham Dance Company on Film will be a first ever in Ireland. We will see, on screen, films concerning Martha Graham, dance pioneer and icon, whose work changed everything in dance during the 20th century, and whose company continues to grow, develop, contextualise and reinvent for the 21st century. Artistic Director Janet Eilber will feature in a film giving the context, story and repertoire extracts from Graham. This sets the tone for the following parts of the evening: full length performance of Prelude to Action (Graham, 1936), abridged versions of Diversion of Angels (1948), Echo (2015) by invited Greek choreographer Andonis Foniadakis and Scavengers (2021) by Andrea Miller. Echo is based on the story of Narcissus, the Greek myth, and is a vibrant, fast-paced evocation of the archetype of self-adoration. Recent Andrea Miller choreography Scavengers is a topical work based on the experience during Covid 19 and the lack of opportunities for social dancing/flirting. Central to the evening will be a unique pre-recorded, personal interview between Adrienne Brown and Virginie Mécène regarding Ekstasis (Graham 1933, Virginie Mécène 2017) on how she reimagined and recreated this lost piece of dance from the Graham repertoire and what that means for the company moving forward. This seminal work has been performed by the Martha Graham Company, along with guest performances by Aurelie Dupont of the Paris Opéra Ballet (2018) and New York City Ballet’s Sara Mearns (2019). This WSL interview comes after a prolonged dialogue with between Adrienne Brown and Virginie Mécène following Adrienne’s visit to New York in 2014 and her seeing Aurelie Dupont perform the solo in 2018. It will be a deep excavation of the unusual and radical way in which this piece came into being and is a first for Ireland and for dance: a special and privileged conversation between an Irish dance artist and a world-renowned company choreographer’s work. The evening will contain repertoire from Martha Graham encompassing her vast, prolific output, and new works now included into the repertoire following its renaissance and reinvention as a company, not only rooted in a legacy of 20th century Modernism but now encompassing 21st century Postmodernism.

Invited Artists Platform 2.00 – 4.00 pm

Day Ticket For Both WSL Events: €20/18. Buy a ticket to each event & discount will automatically apply at checkout.

Photo Credit:

Ekstasis: choreography by Martha Graham

Dancer: Anne Souder

Photo: Hubbard Nash

Courtesy of Martha Graham Resources