"Immediate Tragedy" online performance

About the Event

An ongoing collaboration of three major arts organizations—Martha Graham Dance Company, the Los Angeles-based Wild Up music collective, and The Soraya—that began in March as a result of COVID-19 events will premiere a new digital dance, Immediate Tragedy, on some digital outlets including Northrop’s Facebook channel.

Inspired by Martha Graham’s lost solo from 1937 of the same name, this reimagined version of Immediate Tragedy was commissioned by The Soraya and will feature choreography by Janet Eilber, dancers of Martha Graham Dance Company, music composed and conducted by Wild Up’s Christopher Rountree and digital design and editing by Ricki Quinn.

Martha Graham’s original Immediate Tragedy was created in 1937 in response to the Spanish Civil War. Graham created the solo in collaboration with composer Henry Cowell, but it was never filmed and has been considered lost for decades. Drawing on the common experience of today’s immediate tragedy the 22 artists who created the current project collaborated across the U.S. and Europe used a variety of technologies to coordinate movement, music, and digital design.

The 30-minute world premiere will include interviews with the collaborators, a screening of a recent performance of Deep Song, a solo which the choreographer created as a companion to Immediate Tragedy in 1937, and the premiere of the 2020 digital Immediate Tragedy, which is 10 minutes long.

The new digital Immediate Tragedy will premiere online Fri, Jun 19 at 6:00 pm on Northrop’s Facebook page and The Soraya’s Facebook page, and Sat, Jun 20 at 1:30 pm at the Martha Matinee on the Graham Company’s YouTube Channel.