The Martha Graham Dance Company Collaborates with Italian Productions of The Bacchae and Prometheus Bound
New Graham-style choreography featured at XVIII Festival Internazionale del Teatro Classico dei Giovani in Siracusa, Italy
The Martha Graham Dance Company Collaborates with Italian Productions of The Bacchae and Prometheus Bound
New Graham-style choreography featured at XVIII Festival Internazionale del Teatro Classico dei Giovani in Siracusa, Italy
New York, NY - June 12, 2012 --- Ten members of the Martha Graham Dance Company are featured in The Bacchae by Euripides and Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus as part of XVIII Festival Internazionale del Teatro classico dei giovani in Siracusa, Italy, which runs through June 30.
The staging for the plays uses the famed Graham dance vocabulary and was created by Graham Company artistic director, Janet Eilber, in collaboration with Antonio Calenda, director of The Bacchae, and Claudio Longhi, director of Prometheus Bound. The staging also includes quotes from classic Graham choreography.
"The idea that Graham vocabulary can be used in support of other artistic work is an exciting new endeavor for the Graham Company," says Eilber. "It's the logical extension of our wide-ranging efforts in the area of audience access and opens the door to new uses for Graham's physical legacy."
The Greek chorus for each of the tragedies is made up of twelve actors and ten Graham dancers. The dancers emerge out of the speaking chorus to illustrate in dance the intense emotional themes of the classic choral passages. The premiere of each production inspired standing ovations from the over 8000 people in attendance at the Teatro Greco, an ancient amphitheater overlooking the Mediterranean.
VIDEO: The Bacchae, second chorus. Performed by Graham dancers and the Festival speaking chorus with Gaia Aprea as the Leader of the Chorus.
VIDEO: Prometheus Bound, first chorus. Graham dancers and the Festival speaking chorus.
VIDEO: Blakeley White-McGuire created this mini-documentary about the productions from the dancers' point of view.
Germano Mazzocchetti composed music for The Bacchae. Prometheus Bound was composed by Andrea Piermartire. Costumes for The Bacchae, based on Graham's revolutionary costume from her solo "Spectre 1914", were designed by Pierpaolo Bisleri. Gianluca Sbicca created the Prometheus Bound costumes, inspired by Alexander McQueen.
The classic Greek tragedies will be performed on alternating evenings through June 30, 2012. The Graham Company members performing in Siracusa are Blakeley White-McGuire, Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch, Jacqueline Bulnes, Mariya Dashkina Maddux, Xiaochuan Xie, Andrea Murillo, Natasha Diamond-Walker, Nerfertiti Thomas, Fanny Gombert, and Caterina Rago. Rehearsal directors for the speaking and dancing chorus are Miki Orihara and Denise Vale.
For more information and images contact:
Harlan Vaughn
hvaughn@marthagraham.org
(212) 838-5886 x 205
The Martha Graham Dance Company
The Martha Graham Dance Company:
The Martha Graham Dance Company has been a leader in the development of contemporary dance since its founding in 1926. Today, the company is embracing a new programming vision that showcases masterpieces by Graham, her contemporaries and their successors alongside newly commissioned works by contemporary artists. With programs that unite the work of choreographers across time within a rich historical and thematic narrative the company is actively working to create new platforms for contemporary dance and multiple points of access for audiences.
Since its inception, 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 John F. 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. In addition, the Company has also produced several award-winning films broadcast on PBS and around the world. More information can be found at www.marthagraham.org.
