A provocative, graceful trio of vintage and contemporary — Embattled Garden, Cortege 2023, and Canticle for Innocent Comedians — brought the Joyce Theater audience to its feet at the second night of the Martha Graham Dance Company spring 2023 season. Then it was a revelation to sit with (left to right) artistic director Janet Eilber, and dancers Leslie Andrea Williams and Lloyd Knight, and spend half an hour in conversation. Janet spoke with burnished assurance of the Company’s dedicated mission to new choreographic voices inspired by the magisterial incantations of Martha Graham; Leslie shared her transcendent state of mind when she is in full-on movement immersion, driven by the spectators’ enthusiasm; and Lloyd paid heartwarming tribute to the family-feeling, mutual support and generous note-sharing of the ensemble to which he has belonged for eighteen years.
An illuminating Curtain Chat at the Joyce Theater in NYC
