The Martha Graham Dance Ensemble will open the Center for Theatre Arts' fall season.
The world renowned Martha Graham Dance Ensemble will perform Friday, Aug. 29, at 8 p.m. in the Proscenium Theatre of the Center for Theatre Arts, 430 College Ave.
Graham, for whom the company is named, has been compared to Picasso and Stravinsky because of her unquestionable dominance of her art. Choreographers and dancers acknowledge that she made the single most significant contribution to dance in this century with her original movement technique and monumental body of dance works.
The ensemble's 12 dancers, under the guidance of new artistic director Kenneth Topping, will perform six of Graham's definitive works: Lamentation, Acts of Light, Dancer's World Duet, Night Journey Chorus, El Penitente and Temptations of the Moon.
The company's appearance at Cornell, supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts and Cornell's Council for the Arts, continues the Cornell Dance Program's five-year retrospective of dance in the 20th century.
"Our retrospective looks at past and present innovators who have made history in modern dance," said Joyce Morgenroth, associate professor and coordinator of the Cornell Dance Program. Recent presentations have included the Limon Dance Company, Meredith Monk and Robert Wilson.
Tickets are $10; $8 for students and senior citizens. The box office opens Aug. 25 at 12:30 p.m. and will be open Mondays through Fridays, 12:30 to 5:30 p.m., and one hour before curtain. For information call 254-ARTS or visit the department's Web site at http://www.arts.cornell.edu/theatrearts