The future of Martha Graham's body of work
03/07/2001
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Martha Graham is one of important dance company in modern dance. If we lost their works and their company, it will be big damage to whole art world.There exists traditon and wisdom from many fields in 20th century.
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http://www.marthagrahamcenter.com Old Page
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Dear Friends and Colleagues
The future of Martha Graham's body of work, universal in its scope is in grave danger, and faces the very real prospect of extinction. We, the dancers of the Martha Graham Dance Company and many of the dancers who preceded us, believe this tragedy is avoidable and that immediate, concerted action by the international artistic community is essential. Martha's work has been our life - and her Company our livelihood. We now ask for your support in our struggle to revive the Company and to rescue the precious legacy of Martha Graham. For that to happen, we believe certain issues must be understood and candidly addressed.
On May 25, 2000 the Board of Trustees of the Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance voted to suspend operations of the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Martha Graham School and its Ensemble. Since the death of Martha Graham in 1991 a gulf has grown between The Center whose function it is to perform and teach the Graham works and Mr. Ron Protas who recently established the Martha Graham Trust to administer his rights to the works of Martha Graham. The May 25th decision was a direct consequence of the Board's inability to raise funds because of the intractable, longstanding conflict over artistic issues and finances between the Center and Mr. Protas. This and the failure of Mr. Protas to honor an agreement to step down as artistic director of the Company are at the core of the tragic situation imperiling the survival of the entire Center.
Mr. Protas inherited Martha Graham's works and it is apparent to us that his exploitation of this position has alienated presenters, sponsors and members of the philanthropic community thus preventing the Center from receiving the grants and funds necessary to ensure its survival. He also has a history of adversarial, contentious relationships with past and present dancers and staff that has produced a destructive working environment. In addition, he has now announced that he has withdrawn permission for the Martha Graham Dance Company to perform all the ballets she created on the Company ? while at the same time continuing to license those works to other companies. These actions and his egregious behavior have created the untenable situation that undermines the Company and threatens the legacy of Martha Graham. We believe that renewed negotiations between the Trust and the Center to restructure the relationship between them are necessary. Such a restructuring must ensure a respectful, constructive, artistically driven working environment with complete autonomy for the Center and allow invaluable contributions of past and present artists of the Graham Company and School to be respected and utilized.
If other companies are to license the ballets from the Trust WITHOUT the Company existing to set the standard for Martha Graham's works, the aesthetic values she devoted her life to will be gravely and forever diminished. Throughout the Company's existence and its many generations of dancers, runs the deep commitment to the Martha Graham technique and theater necessary to the mastery of her work. This continuity and commitment makes the Martha Graham Dance Company the repository of the vast knowledge embodied in her work. It is imperative that the entire dance community, including Mr. Protas, realize that should this Company and School close, the world would be deprived of the home Martha Graham created nearly 75 years ago uniquely dedicated to the creation and continued performance of her work. To preserve the integrity of Martha Graham's work until the Martha Graham Center can be revived, we ask all other dance companies and institutions to refrain from licensing and performing any Graham work. We ask all artists to refrain from participating in the mounting of any Graham work. We ask all dancers to refrain from accepting engagements to perform any Graham work.
All of us know the cost of acting on this statement. We do so because our Company and its legacy face extinction. It is our hope that this tragedy wi ll give birth to a new and sustainable future for the Company and School uniquely dedicated to presenting the genius of Martha Graham. We acknowledge that Mr. Protas devoted a significant part of his life to Martha Graham and ask that he honor his commitment to Martha's work by negotiating a new licensing agreement with the Center to ensure the life of the Company and School.
Prominent individuals and organizations in the arts and cultural world have come forward to offer their support to the Company in this emergency. The American Guild of Musical Artists, representing 5,000 dance and operatic artists worldwide, the Martha Graham Center's professional staff and the Board of Trustees, support our efforts. We now call upon the international artistic community to stand with us to bring about these changes to preserve some of the most profound dance art created in the modern world.
