Nearly a century later, Martha Graham’s impact persists

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When the Martha Graham Dance Company comes to New England this month, it’ll be for the first time in almost 20 years.

As it ramps up to its centennial in 2026, the New York-based institution will bring four performances to Boston celebrating and honoring the legacies of icons like namesake founder Martha Graham.

Graham emerged in the 20th century between the two World Wars at a time when American arts were looking for a distinct voice, said Janet Eilber, artistic director for the Martha Graham Dance Company. Like artistic greats painter Georgia O’Keeffe and architect Frank Lloyd Wright who transformed their professions, Graham sought to revolutionize the dance art form, and her impact persists today.

Martha Graham and Bertram Ross, 1961. PHOTO: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

“She was stripping away decoration and facade and finding a way of dancing that expressed true human emotion, and that is, I believe, what makes her works still resonate today, that she was really describing through movement, the essences that connect us all,” Eilber said.

While Eilber has been artistic director since 2005, she began dancing with the company in 1972, coming up under Graham’s instruction and performing her choreography, learning new forms of self-expression that distilled human emotions to their essence.

“That experience of being part of a genius’ creative process is almost indescribable. … She really provided life lessons just about how to be a great dancer, how to be expressive on stage, about how to fulfill your own power, how to understand your own vulnerability, your own passion, your own jealousy…and to mine your own inner landscape,” she said. “To not only be an artist but to be a powerful person.”

Martha Graham Dance Company members perform Agnes de Mille’s World War II-era piece “Rodeo.” PHOTO: Luque Photography

The company will offer this verve and depth during its performances in Boston on Nov. 22 and 23 at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre. Kicking off the Celebrity Series of Boston’s 2024/2025 dance season, the performances will be themed “American Legacies,” pointing to how the “American conversation” has continued from the early 20th century to today, Eilber said.

The performances will bridge 20th-century Graham classics with 21st-century contemporary works. Graham’s 1930 “Lamentations” and 1946 “Dark Meadow Suite” with music from Carlos Chavez will be in conversation with Agnes de Mille’s joyous World War II-era “Rodeo” and Jamar Roberts’ new, commissioned “We the People,” part lament, part protest.

The dance company will also engage the Boston audience outside of its performances. The day before the first performance, Lloyd Knight, principal dancer with the company, will host a choreography talk at Jo-Mé Dance Studios in Jamaica Plain, discussing aspects of his forth-coming one-man show, “The Drama,” at the Guggenheim in New York City.

Knight, who joined the dance company in 2005, said he is honored to be a part of Graham’s legacy. Having been with the company since he graduated, he said his time there has shaped him into the artist he is today.

“It was just always a goal to just dance professionally, and then an extra bonus was getting into the company that I truly loved,” he said. “So I never thought in my mind that I would be here still, 19 years later, performing her works and being a part of this rich history, which I really have deep respect for.”