So Young An and Antonio Leone in Errand into the Maze. Martha Graham Dance Company, Suzanne Roberts Theatre, January 4, 2025. Credit: Ana Maria Nunez
On Saturday, January 4, 2025, Penn’s Department of Classical Studies co-presented a performance, by the Martha Graham Dance Company, of two Greek-mythology themed works by Martha Graham. The works were Errand into the Maze (1947), a duet based on Ariadne and the Minotaur, and a longer piece, Cave of the Heart (1946), that focuses on the Medea myth and features four dancers in the roles of Medea, Jason, the Princess, and the Chorus.
A diverse audience of over 350 attended the event, at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre on Broad St, including many Philadelphians and many visitors attending the joint meeting of the Society for Classical Studies and the Archaeological Institute of America. Most of the audience stayed on after the performance for a question-and-answer session between audience, artists, and scholars.
The event followed the day's earlier academic panel sponsored by the Classics in the Community committee of the SCS, entitled "Dance and Myth: The Reception of the Greeks by Martha Graham," co-organized by Nina Papathanasopoulou, Professor of Classical Studies at College Year in Athens, and Ronnie Ancona, Professor Emerita of Classics at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center.
The performance was introduced by Professor James Ker in his role as chair of the Committee on Classics in the Community and also representing Penn Classical Studies, which co-sponsored the event together with the SCS, and by Nina Papathanasopoulou, who is the Public Engagement Coordinator for the SCS and who first conceived of the event and worked with SCS leadership and staff to bring it to reality. Each of the pieces was introduced by Janet Eilber, the Artistic Director of the Martha Graham Dance Company, who earlier in her career worked with Martha Graham and danced many of the major roles in the MGDC repertory.
"To step briefly into the spotlight and introduce the event was an entirely new experience for me," writes Ker. "As someone relatively unfamiliar with modern dance, I was extremely honored to have the chance to get to know the artists during the day and then to witness their truly stunning performance before an audience of classicists and locals. The academic discussion, the talkback with the artists, and their modernist embodiment of the mythic characters ...—I will never forget it."
Penn faculty and students played important roles in the event. Prior and present department chairs Sheila Murnaghan and Emily Wilson gave unwavering departmental support to the planning, while Finn Dierks-Brown, Ana Maria Nunez, and Anne Lantian Jing gave logistical support, including photography.
The SCS Committee on Classics in the Community administers the Ancient Worlds, Modern Communities grant program, which supports creative projects that engage with local audiences.
For information about the planning of this event by the Committee on Classics in the Community and about Martha Graham's reception of Greek myth, see here and here.
Full program notes for the January 4 event are available here.
The Department of Classical Studies at Penn was able to sponsor this event due to the generous financial support of Keith A.,C’83, and Alixandra Morgan. The SCS also received major support from the Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation.