Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, William Forsythe

Ballet Vlaanderen is set to present three well-known pieces by three American pioneers! Martha Graham (1894-1991) is the founder of ‘modern dance’. For her, dance’s key purpose was to express emotion. In 1936, she created ‘Chronicle’ as a reaction to the rise of fascism; an expressionist work full of suffering and tragedy.
Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) was a star dancer with Martha Graham, and founded his own company in 1953. For him, the dancing body no longer expressed a story or an emotion. For ‘Pond Way’ (1998), his inspiration came from skimming stones on a lake. William Forsythe (1949) led Ballet Frankfurt and The Forsythe Company. He dismantled classical ballet and mixed it with elements of performance art. ‘Approximate Sonata’ (1996) consists of lyrical and virtuoso pas de deux in a minimalist stage setting.