The world-renowned Martha Graham Dance Company returns to The Joyce Theater with three exciting programs April 18–30, 2023. The season features world premieres by Baye & Asa and Annie Rigney, Hofesh Shechter’s high-energy CAVE, and the mesmerizing Canticle for Innocent Comedians, a multi-choreographer work directed by Sonya Tayeh featuring an original score by jazz great Jason Moran. With their stunning mid-century sets by Isamu Noguchi, Graham’s masterworks Cave of the Heart and Embattled Garden return to the stage along with her earliest comedy, Every Soul is a Circus, and the modernist ritual Dark Meadow Suite. 

The season features a new work for six Graham dancers by the artist duo Baye & Asa. Drawing inspiration from Martha Graham's Cortege of Eagles, Baye & Asa’s work looks at Charon, the ferryman who shepherds souls to the underworld. In Graham’s work, Charon is a harbinger of Troy’s inevitable fall. In Baye & Asa’s creation, they ask: Who is the ferryman for the fall of the American Empire?

The season also includes a premiere by evocative choreographer Annie Rigney. This work for five dancers explores feminine rage, grief, and sisterhood. It is at once a rallying cry, an apology, and a prayer, and is danced to haunting and powerful Bulgarian folk music, as well as original music by Italian classical composer Marco Rosano and his collaborator, Andreas Scholl. 

The rapturous CAVE by award-winning UK-based choreographer Hofesh Shechter will also be presented. Created for the Company in 2022, CAVE is an exploration of collective movement, sound, and shared kinetic energy, and features an electronic score by German duo Âme and Shechter. Costumes are by Caleb Kreig and lighting design is by Yi-Chung Chen.

Bringing a new generation of choreographers to re-envision Graham’s innovations, the new Canticle for Innocent Comedians, which had its premiere last spring, is inspired by the themes and format of Graham’s 1952 work. The original work was built around eight virtuosic vignettes that each celebrated a different aspect of nature and our relationship to it. Emmy and Tony award- winner Sonya Tayeh is the lead choreographer and created the vignette titled Sun. Alleyne Dance, Jenn Freeman, Juliano Nunes, Micaela Taylor, and Yin Yue created Earth, Water,Fire, Stars, and Death, and Robert Cohan, who danced in the original cast in 1952, created a new Wind. Moon has the original choreography by Martha Graham. Canticle features a commissioned score by renowned jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran. Costumes are by Karen Young and lighting design is by Yi-Chung Chen. 

The season also features Cave of the Heart, Graham’s 1946 masterwork based on the story of Medea with a score by Samuel Barber and Embattled Garden (1958), Graham’s take on the Garden of Eden and the timelessness of temptation with a score by Carlos Surinch. Rounding out the program are Graham’s wry Every Soul Is a Circus from 1939, with music by Paul Nordoff, and Dark Meadow Suite, an arrangement of highlights from Graham’s 1946 work Dark Meadow, set to a score by Carlos Chavez.

There will be a special gala performance celebrating the Company’s 97th season on Thursday, April 20. The Company’s biennial University Partners Showcase will be presented on Saturday, April 22, and on Sunday, April 30, the Company will present a family matinee with programming for ages 8 and up. 

The dancers of the Martha Graham Dance Company are So Young An, James Anthony, Alessio Crognale,Laurel Dalley Smith, Natasha M. Diamond Walker, Lloyd Knight, Jacob Larsen, Devin Loh, Marzia Memoli,Anne O’Donnell, Lorenzo Pagano, Kate Reyes, Anne Souder, Richard Villaverde, Leslie Andrea Williams, and Xin Ying.    

Performances are at The Joyce Theater April 18–30, 2023 (Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30pm, Thursday and Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, and Sunday at 2pm and 7:30pm). The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street), in Manhattan. Tickets range from $10 to $75. Prices are subject to change. Tickets can be purchased online at www.joyce.org or by calling JOYCECHARGE at 212-242-0800. For information about the Company’s gala on April 20, call 212-229-9200.