"Cave of the Heart,"
“Embattled Garden,'” "Acts of Light"
Martha Graham Dance Company
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
September 13, 2007
by Leigh Witchel
copyright
© 2007 by Leigh
Witchel
History and performance are always at war; we watched one of
the skirmishes on Thursday night when the Graham company opened their second
repertory program. “Cave of the Heart,” Graham’s version of the legend of
Medea, didn’t pull itself together until Medea herself (Miki Orihara) took the
stage for her solos.
Graham boiled the action in the myth down to a quartet:
Medea, Jason, his new bride (here unnamed and referred to as “The
Princess”)
and one woman acting as The Chorus. The
tragedy moved along phlegmatically in laments and poses, and then
Orihara came
center with the jeweled red ribbon symbolizing her vengeance. Graham’s
dances, especially the ones she made
for herself, need a galvanic presence at their center and Orihara
understood
her role. Passion and vengeance go hand
in hand; the dance was first shown in 1946, a decade before that Japan
was transfixed by the story of Abe Sada, a geisha who murdered her
lover and
then castrated him as a remembrance of their pleasure. Orihara’s small
delicate frame consumed into
violent revenge was O-Sada’s mirror image. Orihara’s first spasms as
she began her solo turned the ribbon she
clutched into a snake; at the end she put on Noguchi’s freestanding
wire
carapace as if it were winged.
That performance still could not fill
the vacuum and the
other roles came off as one-dimensional. Jennifer DePalo was in every
dance that evening but wasn’t able to pull
off The Princess’ passivity. Tadej
Brdnik was unconvincing as Jason. The
role seemed to be mainly stamping, posturing and being manly; Graham’s
objectification of men into sex objects. It was still interesting if
only to get a taste of our own medicine. Katherine Crockett was all
foreboding and
concern as The Chorus but didn’t blend into the cast. Her tall,
extended limbs looked completely
different in the same vocabulary than the other, more compact dancers.
“Embattled Garden” is another quartet from 12 years later; this
one based on the legend of Eden,
with Adam and Eve confronted by his first wife Lilith and “The Stranger,” who
stood in for the biblical snake. There
are hints of flamenco and the bullfighting ring in Carlos Surinach’s music
(here, like all the music, played from a recording and sounding muffled) and
also in Graham’s costume designs – ruffles at the back of the dresses and
Lilith’s mantilla. Noguchi’s set is a
tree at one side of the stage; at the other a table-top jungle of tall swaying
poles.
Performance won the battle over history this time; “Embattled Garden” is not a better work than
“Cave of the Heart,” but it got a much better performance, so who is to know? DePalo
did much better as Eve than The Princess. Though both roles are innocents, Eve isn’t passive and it gave DePalo
more to do. David Zurak played Adam with
impressive muscular control in Graham’s contractions. Of the three men doing the lion’s share of
principal roles during this engagement (Brdnik and Maurizio Nardi as well) he
came off the best. Carrie
Ellmore-Tallitsch was a powerful Lilith.
“Acts of Light” begins with another Adam-Eve coupling;
Graham sets an intimate duet and titles it “Conversation of Lovers.” It’s more intense than idyllic, and DePalo
again looked good dancing with Nardi. Things
unfortunately unraveled quickly; the central “Lament” involved five Vegas showboys
prostrating before an unhappy woman in her stretch jammies. Blakely White-McGuire couldn’t make it look
any less cheesy. In the final “Ritual to
the Sun,” Nardi returned to lead the cast, inexplicably overwrought as he leapt
and contracted.
“Acts of Light,” a late work, was never a masterpiece to
start with; it’s had a cynical odor since its premiere in 1981. “Ritual to the Sun” is a stylized depiction
of a Graham class and by inference a celebration of the Graham technique. It didn’t look on the level of “Serenade” or
even “Etudes.” The thing that can save it is a strong performance; instead the
exercises exposed the present cast as technically inconsistent. It isn’t that Graham technique should be as
rigidly codified as ballet, but some of the cast seemed to have a different
opinion as to whether a contraction was a physical movement or a state of
mind. There’s got to be something behind
the incense.
copyright
© 2007 by Leigh
Witchel
