Isamu Noguchi and Martha Graham collaborated for over fifty years, from 1934 until his death in 1988, and the new Barbican exhibition in part covers their rich artistic relationship. The exhibition also included a live performance of Martha Graham's "Lamentation", danced by Yolande Yorke-Edgell.
Tag - Cave of the Heart
★★★✰✰ Both El Penitente and Hérodiade are from the 40’s, a period when Graham was transitioning from exploration of American and Native-American themes to a more mythical mode.
★★★✰✰ The gala was a well-put-together, briskly-paced affair, a sampler of Graham excerpts dating back to her very first recital, in 1926.
Even more than with other choreographers, the costumes and sets are essential elements of Graham’s dance imagination. Think of Martha’s stretchy sack-dress in Lamentation, or the prickly metal tree-dress by Noguchi in Cave of the Heart. They are extensions of the dancers’ bodies, and of Graham’s Jungian world-view.