Jacob’s Pillow, Becket, MA
August 12-16, 2026
By Melissa Roti
This summer, Jacob’s Pillow is celebrating the centennial of the groundbreaking Martha Graham Dance Company as well as offering a salute to pioneering women in dance for the nation’s 250th Anniversary.
Martha Graham had a long history with Jacob’s Pillow and its founders, Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis, as she enrolled in the Denishawn School and later joined the dance company. In 1926, Graham founded what is now the oldest continuous American dance companies.
Even after the death of its founder in 1991, the troupe honored Graham’s legacy as a fearless innovator. Artistic director, Janet Eilber, a former dancer with the company, offered praise to both Graham's choreography and her spirit of collaboration in creating new works that included Graham technique with unique choreography. Eilber directed a conversation between two classic choreographies and two contemporary commissions; alternating between them juxtaposed where the company came from and where it is today.
The first Graham work was a stunning performance of Night Journey (1947), an example of her creative collaborations with composer William Schuman and sculptor Isamu Noguchi (set design). This piece was part of Graham’s Greek cycle where she used the female point of view in her storytelling. Queen Jocasta (Anne Souder) and Oedipus (Lloyd Knight) were so beautifully portrayed, as well as the Seer and Greek Chorus.
The company’s artistry was particularly evident in En Masse (2025), choreographed by former Alvin Ailey American Dance dancer Hope Boykin with input from the Graham company dancers. There were clear Graham influences, but Boykin brought her own language and movement vocabulary creating a work that was more fluid and contemporary. She incorporated music from Leonard Bernstein which added a rediscovered score originally composed for Graham.
After an intermission, the dramatic solo Immediate Tragedy (1937) was performed flawlessly by dancer Xin Ying. Graham regularly explored the intersections of art and politics, and this work was her response to the suffering of women during the Spanish Civil War. Like the piece mentioned above, Immediate Tragedy was thought to have been lost, yet ultimately recreated through an intensive reconstruction process involving Graham’s notes, her letters to composers about the “despair” each has within us, staging maps, and photographs. This was a triumph for preserving Graham’s history which highlights the sad fact that many pre-video choreographies have been lost.
The show concluded with We The People (2024), choreographed by former Ailey dancer-choreographer Jamar Roberts, with a commissioned score by Rhiannon Giddens. The dancers expressed their own joyous physicality yet incorporated familiar gestures and techniques of Graham. Roberts followed in Graham’s footsteps using new music and choreography to express a spirit of collective change. Denim costumes, a quintessentially American fabric, by designer Karen Young also aligned with Graham’s purposeful use of costume in the storytelling process.
Martha Graham was a pioneer as a dancer, choreographer, and collaborator. Her namesake company continues to be a beacon of innovation in modern dance.
Note: The Pillow hosts a summer-long exhibition in Blake’s Barn highlighting Graham’s use of her art to speak out for democracy, women’s rights, and freedom of expression.
