Famed dance troupe teaches, performs

Contract. Release. Repeat.\nIf Martha Graham's dance technique, like shampoo, had directions, it would consist of those three words.\nGraham's namesake company, the Martha Graham Dance Company, will perform Tuesday night at the IU Auditorium. In preparation for the performance, Susan McLain, associate director for the company, guest-taught a modern dance class Monday at the Health, Physical Education and Recreation building and demonstrated Graham's famous technique.\nPerforming mostly floor work, the dancers copied McLain's motions as she swept her arms in great arcs, flexed her feet and hands and used the strength of her core to demonstrate a "different way of moving, a physicality." \nGraham created some of these exercises as early as the 1920s, yet her signature style of resistance is a common thread. The Martha Graham Dance Company was founded in 1926 and is the oldest and most celebrated contemporary dance company in America, according to its Web site, www.marthagraham.org/company.\nAt one point in the lesson, the dancers -- most in black leotards and tights, some in bright blue or magenta -- sat cross-legged. Their feet were flexed, only heels or toes at a time touching the marley floor, a soft dance surface that is easier on a performer's joints because it gives slightly under a person's weight. From their drawn-in position, the dancers straightened their legs to the front, pushing with strained muscles and creating a low trombone tone against the marley, a softer surface.\nAnother exercise saw the dancers in a straddle position. When McLain said, "And a one, and a two, and a here we go, Joe," the drums and piano sounded, and the dancers shifted their weight to the right, lifting the entire left half of their bodies and held their left legs up for two counts. Muscles tensed, but the class members otherwise gave no indication of how taxing the move was on their bodies.\nThe silent effort of the movements, as well as the contraction and release of muscles, characterize the Graham technique. McLain captured the motion in words, saying "It's the feeling of wind being caught in a sail," during the contraction.\n"If you think of the definition of drama, it involves conflict," she added, contrasting the \ntwo motions.\nThe music McLain and the class danced to added another layer to the drama of the dance, with booming drum beats directing the movements. Through many of the numbers, the drums outplayed the piano, which is the instrument usually thought of to accompany dancers.\nAbove all, the modern dance technique included large motions, a feeling of the strength of the body and what McLain called a "sense of expansion and then a sense of release." McLain urged the dancers to watch for those themes in the company's performance Tuesday night.\nAccording to the IU Auditorium Web site, the Martha Graham Dance Company members will perform modern dance pieces that illustrate emotion through movement. Having performed across the globe -- from Europe to Asia, from the Metropolitan Opera to the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza the company was once referred to as "one of the seven wonders of the artistic universe" by the Washington Post.