Texas Ballet Theater Adds to the Lamentation Variations Canon
When the Martha Graham Dance Company debuted Lamentation Variations in 2007 as an anniversary tribute to 9/11, it was intended as a singular performance. It featured a recording of Graham herself performing the original Lamentation solo from 1930, followed by three new compositions inspired by the original.
Since then, the format has been re-created numerous times and offered prominent choreographers, such as Lar Lubovitch, Doug Varone, Michelle Dorrance, and Aszure Barton, the chance to share their own interpretations of the original piece’s themes. Now, three Texan choreographers will join that exclusive cohort when their variations are added to the Lamentation Variations canon.
The choreographers—Joy Bollinger, artistic director of Dallas-based contemporary company Bruce Wood Dance; Nycole Ray, artistic director of Dallas Black Dance Theatre: Encore!; and Texas Ballet Theater principal dancer Alexandra F. Light—will have their works presented this year as part of Texas Ballet Theater’s first all-female-choreographed program, titled International Woman. The program runs from February 21–23 and February 28–March 2 at Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall and Dallas’ Wyly Theatre.
Bollinger, Ray, and Light also share the distinction of being the first female choreographers TBT has commissioned in at least 20 years.
“I was really moved by the idea that this solo created in 1930 still resonates with people, and that even a ballet company said, ‘We want to honor this legacy and to bring these female choreographers together,’ ” says Bollinger. “So I was on board immediately. Some projects are assignments and some projects are privileges, and this is a privilege.”
Graham’s Lamentation solo, as the name suggests, is an exploration of grief. It is performed mostly seated, with the dancer pressing against the confines of fabric they wear, as if wrestling with the physical weight of sorrow.
“I think grief feels lonely and confining,” Bollinger says. “I see that fabric wrapping her and constricting her, and the push and pull against it is her working out those feelings.” Bollinger’s choreography is meant to evoke that same tension, but in multiple bodies, she says, rather than with fabric. “[It’s] the idea of being alone in a room full of people. Sometimes everybody in the room is actually experiencing the same thing and just doesn’t know it.”
While researching for her own choreography, Light was so taken by the visceral experience of watching Graham that she decided to incorporate her body’s physical reaction. “It just kind of clicked, this idea of ‘What more appropriate response to Graham than recording my heart while I’m watching her solo?’ ” That sound became part of her work’s score. Light also drew inspiration from visual artist Ana Mendieta, and the parallels between Mendieta and Graham that Light found through her research.
In addition to Lamentation Variations, the evening also includes Graham’s Maple Leaf Rag and works by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Natalie Weir. It is also produced in recognition of the Martha Graham Dance Company and its centennial celebration.
“I think the move to be part of a worldwide celebration of one of the foundations of modern dance is a brilliant choice on behalf of Texas Ballet Theater to say, ‘We’re here, we exist, we want to be part of the big things happening in dance,’ ” Bollinger says. “Just because we’re down here in Texas, [it] doesn’t mean we don’t honor and have relationships with all of the amazing work that’s come out of [places like] New York and Chicago.”
“I can’t name another project that’s like this, originally from 1930 and still ongoing,” Light comments. “I’m sure even Graham couldn’t have imagined it.”
