Athena (Blakely White-McGuire) and Achilles (Lloyd Mayor) in Richard Move’s THE SHOW (ACHILLES HEELS) (photo © Paula Court)
MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY
Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
Thursday, February 28, 8:00; Saturday, March 2, 2:00; Sunday, March 3, 7:30, $10-$59
212-645-2904
www.joyce.org
www.marthagraham.org
The Martha Graham Dance Company’s winter season at the Joyce, dubbed “Myth & Transformation,” kicked off on February 20 with a pair of productions that served as a microcosm for both the title of the season as well as for the two sides of the company itself. First up was Graham’s 1962 piece Phaedra, a tale of love, infidelity, and revenge featuring Blakely White-McGuire as Phaedra, Maurizio Nardi as Hippolytus, Tadej Brdnik as Theseus, and PeiJu Chien-Pott as Pasiphea, with Mariya Dashkina Maddux as Artemis and Xiaochuan Xie as Aphrodite, in a set composed of four structures designed by Japanese sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Graham’s Phaedra gained notoriety because two members of Congress denounced it as obscene when the work was on tour courtesy of State Department funds, but today it seems tame and rather plain. The trio of men show off their nearly impossible six-pack abs, Artemis shoots off unseen arrows, and Phaedra does curious things with a knife, but the piece feels old-fashioned and dry, as if it were dug up from a time capsule, and Robert Starer’s score sounds like it’s made up of leftovers from West Side Story. For those who think Graham’s work, which changed the face of modern dance for decades, is no longer as relevant as it once was, now cast into a category of legend and myth, Phaedra is a strong example.
Phaedra (Blakely White-McGuire) is manipulated by Aphrodite (Xiaochuan Xie) in Martha Graham Dance Company production of PHAEDRA (photo courtesy of Costas)
But The Show (Achilles Heels) is everything Phaedra is not, a tantalizing, dazzling piece that celebrates Graham’s continuing transformative influence on narrative and movement. Originally commissioned for the White Oak Dance Project in 2002, Richard Move’s unique take on the story of Helen of Troy (Katherine Crockett, in the role she created) and Achilles (Graham apprentice Lloyd Mayor, playing the part previously performed by Mikhail Baryshnikov at White Oak in 2002 and Rasta Thomas at the Kitchen in 2006) is filled with plenty of glitz and glamour as well as beautiful movement. The fanciful production features music by Arto Lindsay, new and old songs by Debbie Harry and Blondie, and a two-sided backdrop painted by artist Nicole Eisenman as well as piped-in dialogue that is mouthed by the lead actors from either previous incarnations of the show (which featured Misha as Achilles and Harry as Athena), or from old Hollywood sword and sandal epics. Move, who appeared as Graham in Martha@ . . . The 1963 Interview two years ago at DTW — and whose own grandmother was Miss Athens — turns the red-clad Athena (White-McGuire) into the host of a reality TV show in which the contestant Achilles answers Jeopardy!-like questions when not staring at himself in a mirror, playing with a mechanical dove, or being covered in glitter. As opposed to Phaedra, a relic from a bygone age, Move’s The Show (Achilles Heels) is a Greek tragedy for the twenty-first century, a tale of love and war told by a Graham devotee who has no boundaries. (Phaedra and The Show [Achilles Heels] will be presented at the Joyce on February 28 and March 2 and 3, with the roles of Phaedra, Hippolytus, and Theseus in the former played by Crockett, Lloyd Knight, and Ben Schultz, respectively, at some performances.)