This May, the Martha Graham Dance Company’s acclaimed student company will be back on stage for its 42nd New York season with an exciting program of Graham classics. 

Performances will take place Thursday and Friday, May 29 and 30, at 7pm, and Saturday, May 31, at 2:30 and 7pm, at the Martha Graham Studio Theater, 55 Bethune Street, 11th Floor, in Manhattan.

This will be Graham 2’s last season in this historical studio theater that was once home to Merce Cunningham and has been the home of the Martha Graham School and Company since 2012.  

Opening with Ted Shawn’s Serenata Morisca (1916), the solo that first showcased Martha Graham as a star performer, the evening will continue with an all-Graham classics program featuring early works such as Prelude to Action from Chronicle (1936) and the solo Deep Song (1937), as well as Greek myth-inspired Cave of the Heart Suite (1946). Highlights from one of Graham’s most psychological and abstract dances, Dark Meadow Suite (1946), and the passionate duet Conversation of Lovers from Acts of Light (1981) will also be presented.  

“As we prepare to move to our new state-of-the-art studios in the heart of the Theater District, we are honoring the space that has been our home for over a decade in Westbeth’s Artists Housing,” says Virginie Mécène, Graham 2 Director. “A few other performances will happen here before we leave, but this will be our final season in this historical space. We are giving it a heartfelt goodbye while looking forward to our new space for a new beginning, a long future, and creating new history.”

Tickets for Graham 2 are $30 in advance/$35 at the door. Student tickets are $15 in advance/$20 at the door. Tickets can be purchased online at marthagraham.org/graham2

About Graham 2

Graham 2 is the Martha Graham’s School student company. Its mission is to bring the Graham tradition to a younger audience, smaller venues, and cultural communities, and to be a springboard for early career dancers to enter the professional dance world. The most advanced dancers are selected from among the hundreds of students from around the world who study at the Martha Graham School. While in Graham 2, dancers are supported by a scholarship, receive stipends for performances, and may be given the opportunity to perform with the Martha Graham Dance Company. Seventy percent of the current Company began as members of Graham 2.

Under the direction of Virginie Mécène, Graham 2 performs Graham’s repertory as well as the works of such guest choreographers as Robert Battle, Pascal Rioult, Adam Barruch, Kun-Yang Lin, Sir Robert Cohan, Darshan Singh Bhuller, Blanca Li, Brice Mousset, Yoshito Sakuraba, and Bradley Shelver. Committed to its education outreach program, Graham 2 performs for more than 3,000 public school children each year. Graham 2 has performed with the Martha Graham Dance Company at New York City Center and the Joyce Theater and has an annual performance season at the Martha Graham Studio Theater. The troupe has also performed at such leading New York venues as the 92NY, Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, LaGuardia Community College, Iona College, and in such cities as Miami, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Wintergreen, VA, Cherry Hill, NJ, and Barcelona, Spain.