The Extended Body of Marth Graham is a tribute to one of Graham’s most canonical creations, her 1930 solo Lamentation, danced to the music of Zoltán Kodály. Working with a leg extension, my interpretation and reconstruction of Graham’s choreography passes through sabotage in the principle of bodily symmetry, a principle laid in the original choreography as a transparent presumption. The dance reconstruction is preceded by a monologue, in which I reflect on the shared physicality of modern times as the extended body of Marth Graham, referring to Giorgio Agamben’s notion of slavery and operation and Hillel Schwartz’s concept of the 20th century new kinaesthetic.

 

The work was commissioned by the international conference “The Dybbuk: Undisciplining the Archive”, conducted in celebration of 100 years since Habima’s 1922 performance of the play.