Martha Graham Dance Company 100 Years

Founded in 1926 by Martha Graham, The Martha Graham Dance Company is the oldest dance company in the United States and remains one of the world’s most distinguished and highly acclaimed. Graham’s original works drew from a variety of influences, notably Greek mythology, the American frontier, and traditional Native American ceremonies, and were characterized by her trademark technique of “contraction and release.” She is also renowned for her ongoing collaboration with several of her contemporary creative visionaries, including sculptor Isamu Noguchi, actor and director John Houseman, composer Aaron Copland, and fashion designers Halston, Donna Karen, and Calvin Klein.

Martha Graham Dance Company 100 Years is a monumental photographic tribute to Graham’s profound creative heritage. Featuring a joyous selection of twenty-four of Graham’s most memorable works, Browar and Ory capture the beauty and the precision of dancers who make up today’s company and who carry the mantle of Graham’s legacy. Each featured dance is prefaced by a piece of archival imagery as well as a description of the dance and notes on costume design, set design, and accompanying music. An in-depth feature on Noguchi’s set design as well as an introduction by Martha Graham Dance Company artistic director Janet Eilber round out the program.  

• "Ory  and Browar’s photographs are a testament to their deep reverence for Graham, capturing the precision, clarity, and expressiveness of the human body when engaged in dance." 
  MyModernMet
• "Breathtaking new images of the dancers who are  now leading the choreographer’s  legacy forward are juxtaposed with
  archive images, presenting a dialogue between past and present... Leafing through the pages, we could sense the depth of history in it, the bridge with the present, and how bodies have been forged through [Graham's] technique, while glimpsing undisputed masterpieces and little-known works"
  Danza International
• "A sumptuously presented volume of gloriously photographed choreographic moments by one of the fundamental figures of dance history."
  Gramilano.com
• "Impressive project, very high-quality images and editorial choices. It's rare to see such a clean, coherent and harmonious book, you'd never be tired to browse..."
  Emanuele Cucuzza, Juror, International Photography Awards
• "Their latest book, Martha Graham Dance Company: 100 Years, is not simply a centennial celebration. It’s a love letter to legacy. A visual memoir that honors one of modern dance’s most revolutionary forces, not by looking back, but by moving forward. Through 24 of Graham’s most iconic works, reinterpreted through today’s dancers, the book becomes a living conversation. Past and present blur into something that feels both immediate and eternal."
  Ebby magazine
• "With photo essays on 24 beloved Graham classics, this mix of archival images, new photographs, and deft writing is gorgeous, rigorous, based in the kinetic, and in touch with the totemic moments of Graham theater. “The body says what words cannot,” explained Graham. So do the visions in this magnificent book."
  Airmail
• “This is a knock-your-socks off book. There's outside shots, there's inside shots, there's color, there's black and white.... It is the kind of book where you can linger and just say, this is a gorgeous picture or you can get involved with the narrative, with the whole history of the Martha Graham dance legacy.”
  FRAMES Photography Podcast