Martha Graham Dance Company

GRAHAM: Appalachian Spring (music: Copland)
Cave of the Heart (music: Barber)
Maple Leaf Rag (music: Joplin)

Cal Performances is thrilled to welcome back the iconic Martha Graham Dance Company for the first time in many seasons for a program of signature works. Graham dug deep into the American psyche to define a new, homegrown, emotionally charged, and socially engaged contemporary dance that would influence generations to come. Her Appalachian Spring is a snapshot of a thrilling moment in dance history: premiered in 1944, it featured a score by Aaron Copland that earned him a Pulitzer Prize; Graham danced the lead, opposite Merce Cunningham. The program also includes Cave of the Heart (1946), based on the story of Medea, and Maple Leaf Rag (1990), a playful tribute to the ragtime music of Graham's youth.