This June, the Martha Graham Dance Company’s acclaimed second company will be back on stage for its 39th New York season with an exciting program of new works and Graham classics. The season is dedicated to Yuriko, longtime Graham dancer, teacher, and Graham 2 founder. 

Performances will take on Thursday and Friday, June 9–10 at 7pm, and Saturday, June 11 at 2:30pm and 7:30pm, at the Martha Graham Studio Theater, 55 Bethune Street, 11th Floor, in Manhattan.

“The issues of our relationship with nature and with one another have become even more energized and urgent during the challenges of the pandemic. These worldwide personal and political concerns motivate all of us to express fresh and bold ideas through art,” said Graham 2 Director Virginie Mécène. “This season speaks to our present time by both celebrating nature and representing our responsibility to living together on this planet.”

The program, which includes a musical interlude with live music by Erán Fink and Stavh Danker, will feature three Graham works: Ritual to the Sun from Acts of Light, Dark Meadow Suite, a recent arrangement featuring highlights of the work, and Steps in the Street and Prelude to Action from Graham’s powerful work Chronicle, which will be performed for the first time with a cast of men and women.

At the Saturday matinee and evening performance, the company will pay a special tribute to Yuriko. A video of the original Moon, a duet from Graham’s Canticle for Innocent Comedians, featuring Yuriko, will be presented. Graham 2 was originally created by Yuriko at the request of Martha Graham in 1983 under the name of the Martha Graham Ensemble.  

The season also features a film of Ensō, a site-specific work by Virginie Mécène, recently created for the Westfest Dance Festival, and a new work, Kenopsia, by Japanese choreographer and former Graham 2 dancer Yoshito Sakuraba. Kenopsia is influenced by Sakuraba’s fascination with the illusion of time and place, in particular a ghost town in California called Bodie. The palettes of artist Gregory Crewdson’s photographic compositions and his play with lighting to create scenes and interactions that capture the narrative depth of a work are also influences. Sakuraba says that he shapes a dance to fit a narrative layered with multifaceted, theatrical interactions. 

Tickets for Graham 2 are $25 in advance/$30 at the door. Student tickets: $15 in advance/$20 at the door. Tickets can be purchased online at marthagraham.org/graham2.