This spring, the Martha Graham Dance Company (MGDC) will revisit Bennington College for the first time in decades, offering a residency, conversation, and performance of Graham classics and new works in celebration of the company’s 100th anniversary. 

Dance students from the college’s BA and BFA programs are set to perform Panorama, Graham’s groundbreaking call to social consciousness, which was created at the Bennington School of the Dance in 1935. Preparations for the event series begin March 7–13, when Blakeley White McGuire—former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company and current faculty member at the Martha Graham Center—will be in residence at Bennington to teach and stage Panorama.

Part of the year-long GRAHAM100 celebration, the residency brings together MGDC dancers, scholars, and Bennington students to explore Graham’s enduring legacy and her historic ties to Bennington (particularly the Bennington School of the Dance), where she developed many of her seminal works in the 1930s. 

The program culminates on March 28 with a series of events, including a company class, an in-depth conversation with Jacob’s Pillow scholar emeritus Norton Owen and MGDC’s artistic director, Janet Eilber, accompanied by rare photographs, and a performance of iconic Graham pieces including Lamentation (1930), Theme and Variations from Appalachian Spring (1944), and excerpts from contemporary works by Hope Boykin and Jamar Roberts.

Supported by the Ford Foundation (including its previous president, Darren Walker), the Jerome A. and Estelle R. Newman Assistance Fund, and an anonymous donor, this event not only honors Graham’s century-long legacy but also inspires today’s dancers to carry her revolutionary spirit into the future of dance.

Editor’s note: This announcement was updated to include mention of Martha Graham’s association with the Bennington School of the Dance.