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Clytemnestra’s place in Greek mythology
Sculptor Isamu Noguchi designed close to twenty sets for Martha Graham, including those for her series based on Greek myths. See the Noguchi Museum
Watch short prize winning videos that relate the classic character to someone in the news today as part of the Clytemnestra Remash Challenge
An interactive guide that contains introductory information and activities appropriate for all children, even without experiencing the performance of Clytemnestra
Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring Martha Graham Dance Company Artistic Director Janet Eilber, is offered in Eisenhower Auditorium one hour before the performance and is free for ticket holders. Artistic Viewpoints regularly fills to capacity. Seating is available on a first-arrival basis.
Martha Graham Dance Company
Clytemnestra
7:30 p.m. Thursday, November 5, 2009
Eisenhower Auditorium
Adult $39 University Park Student $15 18 and Younger $26
A Washington Post critic calls the Martha Graham Dance Company “one of the seven wonders of the artistic universe.” Choreographer and dancer Martha Graham, who founded her contemporary dance company in 1926, created 181 works, but only one—Clytemnestra (1958)—is an evening-length work. The dance, based on Aeschylus’ trilogy The Oresteia and performed to a score by Egyptian composer Halim el-Dabh, is operatic in scale and features sets by longtime Graham collaborator Isamu Noguchi. The dance unfolds from the perspective of Clytemnestra, Queen of Mycenae, and flows like the rivers of blood that passed from generation to generation in the doomed House of Atreus. Although it relives a tragic past, Clytemnestra is ultimately about rebirth and redemption. Guided today by Artistic Director Janet Eilber, the company has toured to more than fifty countries on five continents and advanced the careers of some of the greatest names in modern dance, including Merce Cunningham and Paul Taylor. “They seem able to do anything,” writes a Los Angeles Times critic, “and to make it look easy as well as poetic.”
The presentation includes a post-performance discussion among company and audience members.
Audio description, which is especially helpful to patrons with sight loss, is available for this performance at no extra charge to ticket holders.
sponsors
Robert and Helen Harvey
Symposium
The Female Archetype in the Work of Martha Graham, a symposium featuring Elisha Clark Halpin, assistant professor of dance, and Susan B. Russell, assistant professor of theatre, is free and open to the public from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, November 4, in the Penn State Downtown Theatre Center lobby, 146 S. Allen St., State College.