Martha Graham Dance Company, Coolidge Auditorium, The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., May 14-16, 1998

Dance Magazine, August, 1998 by George Jackson

MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY COOLIDGE AUDITORIUM, THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C. MAY 14-16, 1998 REVIEWED BY GEORGE JACKSON

Did Appalachian Spring look cramped on its return to the space for which it was made in 1944? No! Martha Graham knew what she was doing when she choreographed for the Coolidge's small stage. A gesture to someone nearby and a glance at someone close can be subtler yet stronger than when dispatched across a distance--as they were on this special occasion celebrating the acquisition of the Graham archive by the Library of Congress. Phrasing was exceptionally nuanced. Figures not dancing at a given moment became part of a frame for those who were. The feeling of the open frontier was actually enhanced by the auditorium, because the setting--the fenced-in front yard of the house which designer Isamu Noguchi indicated by just its structural lines--seemed vulnerably small against the vastness the settlers faced. And, the nineteen instrumentalists, conducted by Aaron Sherber, made one understand that it wasn't just for economy, but for the sense it gives of human utterance, that Aaron Copland initially wrote his Ballet for Martha music as an orchestral chamber work.

The characters--led by Terese Capucilli's Bride, Janet Eilber's Pioneering Woman, and the Husbandman of classically trained Meelis Pakri (from Estonia, courtesy of the Colorado Ballet)--were larger and richer than life, except Peter Sparling's Revivalist, who was so inward that he appeared alien. For a change, Appalachian Spring didn't seem too long because one could see the cast differentiate the stages of the action.

Also for this occasion, the library and the Graham company commissioned a premiere--Susan Stroman's But Not For Me, a pajamas and pillows, party and dream ballet. Set to an orchestration of George and Ira Gershwin songs (conducted by Paul Gemignani), it was smoothly crafted in a showbiz way and featured tall, leggy Katherine Crockett's sexy balances. But it seemed dead wrong. Martha Graham's company ought to be producing art, not mere entertainment.