Immediate Tragedy

Legendary dancer/choreographer Martha Graham created a solo work in 1937 called Immediate Tragedy. The dance had its world premiere on July 30, 1937 at the Bennington School of Dance in Vermont. Featuring music by composer Henry Cowell, it was Graham’s response to the Spanish Civil War.

New York Times critic John Martin said of the work, “Not since the eloquent and beautiful Frontier, first presented three seasons ago, has she given us anything half so fine as Immediate Tragedy.”

This work was never filmed and was considered a lost masterpiece. Until now.

After a considerable amount of material was discovered by Graham biographer Neil Baldwin (including photos, reviews, letter and musical notations), Martha Graham Dance Company has collaborated with Wild Up’s Christopher Rountree and Thor Steingraber at The Soraya to come up with a new version of Immediate Tragedy that speaks to our time.

This reimagined piece features 14 dancers – all performing separately and safely from their own space – dancing to new music written by Rountree.

To help create their individual choreography, each dancer was given four photos and was tasked with designing specific movement phrases. The dancers, all members of the Martha Graham Dance Company, are So Young An, Alessio Crognale, Laurel Dalley Smith, Natasha Diamond-Walker, Lloyd Knight, Charlotte Landreau, Jacob Larsen, Lloyd Mayor, Marzia Memoli, Anne O’Donnell, Lorenzo Pagano, Anne Souder, Leslie Andrea William and Xin Ying.

Rountree and Wild Up (Jiji, Richard Valitutto, Jodie Landau, Brian Walsh and Derek Stein) used what little remains of Cowell’s original composition as their inspiration.

Cowell was an American composer who wrote 20 complete symphonies with significant work completed on a 21st (later finished by Lou Harrison.) His work inspired, amongst others, Bartok and John Cage. He published New Music Quarterly and was an ardent supporter of many composers including Charles Ives.

The video elements were edited by Ricki Quinn who has been working with Janet Eilbert, the Artistic Director of Martha Graham Dance Company, Wild Up and Steingraber on the world premiere of Immediate Tragedy.

You’ll be able to watch the end result of all these efforts when The Soraya premieres Immediate Tragedy on Friday, June 19th on their Facebook page at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT. The next day it will also be available on the Graham Company’s YouTube Channel at 2:30 PM EDT/11:30 AM PDT.

Photo of Martha Graham in Immediate Tragedy by Robert Fraser (Courtesy of Martha Gram Resources, a division of the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, Inc.)