“Panorama” – a high-energy signature dance choreographed by Martha Graham – originally was performed by student dancers at Bennington College in Vermont in 1935.
Keeping with this tradition, the University of Arizona Dance Ensemble will perform the piece as part of the UApresents program featuring the Martha Graham Dance Company on Saturday, April 16.
Forty UA dance students were chosen for the reconstruction, and the dance will be performed in groups of 30 during a variety of offerings beginning with the Saturday performance and continuing with the UA Dance Legacy Series Spring Collection at the Stevie Eller Dance Theatre starting April 21.
“This level of opportunity to perform is why I chose the UA,” said Gretchen LaWall, a dance major who is the lead female dancer featured in the section of “Panorama” with five dancers who slow the imperial rhythmic pace of the piece down with a nod toward spatial composition and classical form.
According to the original program notes, Graham designed “Panorama” to express the new, more-modern aspects of dance and to express the power of the people to bring about change.
On Saturday, the Graham Company will perform “Dance is a Weapon,” which includes “Panorama,” “Lamentation Variations” and “Appalachian Spring.”
The collaboration with the UA Dance Ensemble and the Graham Company was possible through the contributions of UApresents, Stephen Golden, Susan Tarrence, Ginnie and Bob McKay, Dr. Mary Jo Ghory and Dan Leach, said Douglas Nielsen, UA dance professor.
Nielsen credits these contributions also for making a trip possible from Miki Orihara, a member of the Graham Dance Company, who worked with the UA dance team on the “Panorama” reconstruction weeks before the scheduled performance.
