January|February 2004
Martha Graham's Lamentation
MARTHA GRAHAM, SHOWN HERE in her 1930 solo
Lamentation, was probably the most important figure in the development of modern dance. Rebelling against the smooth, straight lines of traditional ballet, Graham�s choreography called for sharp contractions and striking curves. Her work centered on movements of the torso and pelvis, parts of the body previously shunned by Western theatrical dance. Ballet attempted to conceal effort; Graham demanded that dancers show emotion on stage to reveal their struggle.
Graham�s work gained popularity and relevance during the Great Depression, and she remained one of the country�s most prominent choreographers for the next half century. When she died in 1991, she left her estate to her companion, Ron Protas, almost 50 years her junior. Never a professional dancer, Protas had become her caretaker during the last few years of her life, sorting her mail and deciding which of her old friends could visit.
Soon after her death, Protas clashed with the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, the organization that ran the dance company and school that bore her name. Protas demanded that the company stop performing many of Graham�s classic works, saying that he held all the rights to her creations. The center countered that because Graham had been an employee, her choreography should be considered work for hire and therefore its property.
In August 2002, a federal trial judge ruled in favor of the center. According to the ruling, Graham had ceded her copyrights for works created prior to 1956 to the center as part of a contract she signed with it that year. Works created from then on also belonged to the center, which had paid Graham a salary and employed the other dancers with whom Graham collaborated during that time. A handful of dances that had been filmed and sold without copyright registration were declared to belong in the public domain. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals is now considering Protas�s appeal.
Many dancers cheered the ruling because it loosened the grip of the much-disliked Protas over Graham�s dances and allowed the dance company to perform them again. But many dancers also fear the implications of a ruling that limits a choreographer�s rights to her creations. Many art forms require collaboration�between director and cinematographer in film, or composer and librettist in opera. But in dance, unlike film, there is not always a visual document of the final product; because choreography is hard to notate, there is often not even a written one. And in dance, unlike opera, it�s frequently difficult to distinguish who is responsible for what, as works are developed through experimentation, practice, and dialogue among choreographers and their dancers, musicians, and set designers. In the wake of the Graham case, add to that list their lawyers.
�THE EDITORS