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Join our Martha Graham and Greek Myth Journey through Myth, Art, and Dance.
Nina Papathanasopoulou Myers and the Martha Graham and Greek Myth team
Martha Graham & Greek Myth Part 2: Clytemnestra was presented at the Graham for Europe 2024 Summer Intensive in Venice, Italy.
Research/Presentation: Nina Papathanasopoulou Myers
Choreography and Restaging of Graham Repertory: Penny Diamantopoulou
Dancers:
Sofia Belem Garza Garcia
Maria Biosa
Stefania Coloru
Aleth Berenice Heger-Hedløy
Priscila Montemayor
Laura Rivet
Lucas Sverdlen
Audrey de Texier
Video: Vanessa Daou
Jennifer DePalo as Electra in Martha Graham’s Clytemnestra
According to Classics scholar, Charles Segal, “Electra's story has a single, sharp focus of interest which culminates and is essentially complete at the matricide itself.”
Footage from Jennifer DePalo as Electra in Martha Graham’s Clytemnestra. NYU Skirball Center, 2009, Courtesy of Martha Graham Resources
#marthagrahamandgreekmyth #marthagraham #marthagrahamdance #ancientgreece #greekmythology #performance #electra
PBS Dance in America film of Martha Graham’s Clytemnestra in 1979
Nina Papathanasopoulou, Professor of Classical Studies College Year in Athens and creator of Martha Graham and Greek Myth argues that Graham portrays Electra’s desire for revenge by making use of a chorus of Furies, which accompanies Electra in many of her entrances. This chorus has two functions: on the one hand, it represents Electra’s desire for revenge and marks her hostility towards her mother; on the other, the Furies’ presence connects Electra to Clytemnestra, as they accompany Clytemnestra too when she takes her revenge against Agamemnon.
Video: Electra enters with the Furies during the prologue in Graham’s Clytemnestra. Footage from a PBS Dance in America film of Martha Graham’s Clytemnestra in 1979. Courtesy of Martha Graham Resources.
#marthagrahamandgreekmyth #marthagraham #marthagrahamdance #ancientgreece #greekmythology #performance #electra
Martha Graham presenting Iphigeneia’s sacrifice
Footage from a PBS Dance in America film of Martha Graham’s Clytemnestra in 1979. Courtesy of Martha Graham Resources.
“In her dance ‘Clytemnestra’ Martha Graham presents Iphigeneia’s sacrifice as a gender conflict between savage war-hungry men and a vulnerable girl whom they kill to fulfill their appetite. Iphigeneia is placed faced down on top of military spears, a visual tableau which emphasizes her subjugation under male dominance.”
– Nina Papathanasopoulou, Professor of Classical Studies at College Year in Athens and Creator of Martha Graham and Greek Myth
Martha Graham’s Clytemnestra
In Graham’s Clytemnestra, Clytemnestra remembers all the events that led to her own murder. The heroine’s reflections on her own life constitute a kind of self-imposed trial, asking – as the Greek tragic poet Aeschylus did for Orestes – whether her crime was justified, and redrawing the larger narrative in markedly gendered terms. By having Clytemnestra reweave her own narrative, Graham empowers the mythical queen and asks us to recognize and to find value in the experiences of women.
- Nina Papathanasopoulou Myers, Professor of Classical Studies at College Year in Athens College Year in Athens and Creator of Martha Graham and Greek Myth
Video: Ben Schultz (Agamemnon) and Abdiel Jacobsen (Orestes), Peiju Chien-Pott (Clytemnestra), and Lorenzo Pagano (Aegisthus) in Martha Graham’s Clytemnestra.
An initiative that brings together classical philology with modern dance.
