UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) will present the Martha Graham Dance Company’s Graham100, Wednesday, Oct. 4 at the Granada Theatre.

Recognized as a primal artistic force of the 20th century, Martha Graham defined contemporary dance as a uniquely American art form.

Two Martha Graham Dance Company performers wearing yellow leotards strike an unusual pose.
Martha Graham Dance Company will hold a dance class on Oct. 3 at Santa Barbara High School, Graham’s alma mater. Credit: Courtesy photo

In an evening of new and reimagined works framing a Graham classic, the company will perform Hofesh Shechter’s high-energy “CAVE” and Graham’s “Dark Meadow Suite,” an abstract work about life’s journey and the search for connection with one’s self and one’s community.

A reconstruction of Agnes de Mille’s “Rodeo” rounds out the program, with a reorchestration of Aaron Copland’s score performed by a live bluegrass ensemble led by Punch Brother Gabe Witcher.

On Tuesday, Oct. 3, members of the Martha Graham Dance Company will conduct a dance class at Graham’s alma mater, Santa Barbara High School.

Graham, who graduated from SBHS in 1913, found Santa Barbara stimulating after growing up to the age of 14 in Pennsylvania. An active participant in the life of the school, she captained the girls’ basketball team and was editor of the newspaper.

Graham was moved by the multiculturalism of early 20th century Santa Barbara, and declared in her memoirs that “no child can develop as a real Puritan in a semi-tropic climate.”

The Martha Graham Dance Company, founded in 1926, has been a leader in the evolving art form of modern dance. It is both the oldest dance company in the United States and the oldest integrated dance company.

The Martha Graham Dance Company has received international acclaim from audiences in more than 50 countries throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

The company has performed at the Metropolitan Opera House, Carnegie Hall, the Paris Opera House, Covent Garden, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, as well as at the base of the Great Pyramids in Egypt and in the ancient Odeon of Herodes Atticus theater on the Acropolis in Athens.

Though Martha Graham herself is the best-known alumna of her company, the Company has provided a training ground for some of modern dance’s most celebrated performers and choreographers. Former members of the Company include Merce Cunningham, Erick Hawkins, Paul Taylor, John Butler and Glen Tetley.

Among celebrities who have performed with the company are Mikhail Baryshnikov, Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev, Maya Plisetskaya, Tiler Peck, Misty Copeland, Herman Cornejo, and Aurelie Dupont.

The Martha Graham Dance Company’s Graham100 is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures.
Tickets are $51-$106 for general public; $20 for UCSB students (with current student ID).

For tickets or more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures, 805-893-3535; visit www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu; or call the Granada Theatre box office, 805-899-2222 or online at granadasb.org.