Subject: Ballet Instructor's Newsletter (8-26-02)

Topic for this edition: Martha Graham
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Dispute over Ownership
By
Shahab Nahvi

On August 24, 2002 Lewis Segal from the Los Angeles Times reported that “A federal judge rules company [Martha Graham Company], not heir of choreography icon, owns landmark works.” Finally, a sensible step has been taken.


I began to study Martha Graham technique back in the early 70’s at the Conservatory of Music in Tehran, Iran, under Bijan Kalantari. He proceeded to show us some of Graham’s work which were available on old-fashioned film reels. The image that got stuck in my head from watching this film was of a woman who seemed to be having a full conversation with herself and wearing what appeared to be a large bone in her black hair. Her cheekbones were the most prominent part of her face. Because I hadn’t learned English yet, obviously, I didn’t understand a word she said. But, I understood the language of dance. The energy and excitement, personal power, not to mention self-confidence, were enough to keep me captivated as a teenager.

Years later, I met her in New York, and took some classes that she sat through. By that time, she had severe arthritis, just cheated death, and had to be guided in and out of the studio. One of the company members would usually teach our advanced class and after completion of set exercises Martha Graham would give the reasoning behind each movement. For example, “You must present your jugular vein. This is the area where the fallen wolf would present to the winner for quick kill.” To her, dance meant everything. I am afraid it wasn’t short of life and death itself.

It was during this period when I came across Ron Protas. He was known to be the man who had held Graham’s hand while she was in the hospital near death. Martha Graham commented about him in her book, Blood Memory:

That was in the early 70’s when I had stopped dancing. I had lost my will to live. I stayed home alone, ate very little, and drank too much and brooded. Finally, my system just gave in. I was in the hospital for a long time, much of it in a coma, all through it under the care of my beloved doctor Allen Mead. It was felt I would not recover. The visitors trailed off after awhile. I was not exactly delightful company, and the prognosis was depressing. A few friends remained, very few. And even they began to trail off. Ron Protas would come to sit with me. I told him later how much I had heard from the doctors when I wasn’t suppose to, when I was in the coma.

Very often, Protas would bring Ms. Graham into the Center from her limousine. During wintertime, she would wear a fur coat and a pair of black long sleeve gloves to hide her arthritic hands. Her facial skin was shiny from face-lifts she had undergone—she looked as though she was wearing a facemask. But, at that time I overlooked all of these things.

One day, when I was practicing downstairs in one of the small studio rooms, Protas opened the door and walked her through the studio, being that it was the quickest way to the greenroom (lounge). Out of respect, I immediately stood up. She passed me by, made a stop, turned around, looked me up and down with a youthful glance, and said to Ron, “Doesn’t he look good?” I smiled and thanked her. Even at that age she was a sexual being. One could say, sexuality was the creator of her technique, or better said, sexuality drove her to create her technique. However, she preferred to use the word ‘eroticism’ rather than ‘sexuality’ or ‘sex’ when she taught. From Martha Graham’s book:

I know my dances and technique are considered deeply sexual, but I pride myself in placing on stage what most people hide in their deepest thoughts.

It is unfortunate that America did not really recognize and appreciate her work, as they should have—truly, she was an original artist. She found it humorous when one of her students at Juilliard, whom had attended a summer course with her to study one of her works, commented that the men in her company were perhaps the only dancers in the world who suffered from vagina envy. If it was not for Betty Ford, wife of former President Ford, who had been a dancer herself, Martha Graham might not have later been recognized as an U.S. treasure. Excerpt from the Ford Library and Museum web site (http://www.ford.utexas.edu/grf/bbfbiop.htm):

At an early age, Betty developed a passion for dance, and upon graduation from Central High School in 1936, she attended the Bennington School of Dance for two summers. While studying modern dance at Bennington she began her long association with dance legend Martha Graham. She studied at the Graham School in New York City, and became a member of the Martha Graham Auxiliary Group. Her friendship with Miss Graham lasted until Miss Graham's death in 1991…While in the White House, Mrs. Ford encouraged her husband to present the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Martha Graham, the first dancer so honored.

Even in the 80’s, the rumor was that Protas would inherit her works, but to what extent nobody knew. He was instrumental in creating the Center’s licensing program—license given to those who complete set courses at the Graham School. That meant that the old company members, those who had danced with Ms. Graham herself, such as Bertram Ross, would not be recognized; hence, they could not state on their resume or to their students, that they could teach, or were teaching, Graham technique. I, personally, am not against licensing, but the manner they chose to proceed was political and only for purpose of control over those dancers that had been with the company for a long time. It totally baffled me. I had studied with Bertram Ross, a fine teacher and dancer. He was the one who had informed me of this licensing program. I proceeded to ask him what it was that he was teaching when at the Martha Graham Center and Juilliard. He just looked at me and laughed. It is funny to see the man, who was a member of the Martha Graham Company since 1954 and danced in her pieces as principal, such as Seraphic Dialogue (1955), Embattled Garden (1958), Clytemnestra (1958), Acrobats of God (1960), Alcestis (1960), Samson Agonistes (1961), A Look at Lightening (1962), Phaedra (1962), Legend of Judith (1962), Circe (1963), Lady of the House of Sleep (1968), A Time of Snow (1968), and The Archaic Hours (1969) [source B.J. Stein, ‘Bertram Ross,’ Dance Magazine (1976/78)], would actually need a license. Especially if he was instrumental in creating his own solo work in these pieces. He had told me that many times Ms. Graham told him that he had so & so amount of time with a piece of music and to create his own solo for it.

Take this ridiculous idea about no licensing for people such as Mr. Ross one step further and what we have is the concept of Protas’ ownership of Graham’s choreography. As though her choreography was some type of an accessory like a diamond necklace, where you could put it in a vault to appreciate over time. Without people studying at the Martha Graham Dance Center, vigorously training in order to learn her style and acquire the meaning of each movement from those who actually have performed it and know what it means, her dances, if performed without these understandings, will have no substance—like empty shells. Protas’ attempt to withhold the rights to these dances and the style from the Center was criminal—a crime that was committed on all Americans and art lovers around the world. By not allowing her work to be performed, people knowing her pieces would have eventually begun to forget them. Even though most of the pieces are recorded on videotape for posterity, having personal experience, a physical memory, of performing her work is essential. The ruling that the district judge announced was just and perhaps saved Martha Graham dances and her unique technique for our future. From Segal’s LA Times article:

The ruling Friday by U.S. District Judge, Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum held that from 1956 to her death in 1991, Graham was an employee of the center and that works created by her during that period constituted work-for-hire and thus belonged to her employers. Cedarbaum ruled that earlier works had been assigned by Graham to the center after its creation.

© Copyright 2002-2003. All Rights Reserved.
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