A CENTURY OF GRAHAM: THE MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY CELEBRATES 100 YEARS

America’s oldest dance company, the Martha Graham Dance Company, is celebrating its centennial with performances and events around the world. Widely recognized as one of the most influential artistic forces of the 20th century, Martha Graham (1894–1991) gave her first performance with a small group of dancers on April 18, 1926, from a modest studio at Carnegie Hall in Midtown Manhattan.

Over the last century, more than 400 dancers have performed with the Company, carrying forward a groundbreaking and distinctly American style of dance that has inspired generations of artists and audiences alike.

“Our company’s centennial rests on the shoulders of the earliest Graham acolytes—the handful of young women, many of them first-generation Americans, who gave life to Martha’s radical new style,” says Artistic Director Janet Eilber. “In the 1930s, they embarked on our first transcontinental tour, bringing the little-known and frequently misunderstood art form to audiences from Tallahassee to Vancouver.”

In developing her technique, Graham experimented endlessly with movement, beginning with the elemental principles of contraction and release. From these foundations, she created a movement vocabulary designed to express the deepest dimensions of human emotion. Her 181 dances are known for their sharp, angular, and emotionally charged physicality.

Graham revolutionized dance not only through movement, but by expanding the thematic possibilities of the art form. Her works explored social, political, psychological, and mythological subjects while drawing inspiration from sources ranging from the American frontier and Native American ceremonial traditions to modern painting and Greek mythology. Many of her most celebrated roles portray powerful women from history and myth. Today, the Company continues that legacy by pairing Graham masterworks with newly commissioned works by contemporary choreographers.

Since its founding, the Martha Graham Dance Company has performed in more than 50 countries and at many of the world’s most celebrated venues, including Carnegie Hall, the Paris Opera House, the Royal Opera, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The GRAHAM100 season includes a major exhibition at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, a two-part PBS documentary, collaborations with NYC Dance Project and PHILADANCO!, and the Company’s recent move into a new headquarters in Times Square. Together, these initiatives honor Martha Graham’s enduring artistic legacy and the generations of artists who continue to carry it forward.