Martha Graham work to feature Leelanau County artists

From staff reports

Holly Wren Spaulding of Cedar and Hughthir White of Empire will perform in an upcoming production of Martha Graham’s dance-drama, “American Document,” August 27 and 28 at the historic Mills Community House in nearby Benzonia. Spaulding, a widely published freelance writer and poet will make her debut as one of two interlocutors. White, who has founded, directed and danced in several American dance companies and has toured Europe, will join an ensemble of six dancers. The Michigan Council for Cultural Arts and Affairs and the Northsky NonProfit Network will fund this unique production.

This experimental dance work premiered in the 1930s and incorporated vaudevillian structures, folk rhythms, and spoken text, to examine the conflict and ever-evolving questions: “What is America?” and “What is an American?” Martha Graham is regarded as one of the foremost pioneers of modern dance. Her influence on dance can be compared to the influence Picasso had on the visual arts and Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture. A performer of astounding productivity and originality, she invented a new language for movement, and used it to reveal the passion, the rage and the ectasy common to human experience.

“American Document” is directed by dancer-choreographer, Gretchen Eichberger, a former Glen Arbor resident, who currently lives in Benzie County. Her recreation of the work will feature excerpts from Michigan-born and Pulitzer-prize winning author Bruce Catton’s “Waiting for the Morning Train,” a memoir of boyhood in northern Michigan.

For tickets or inquiries, call the Mills Community House in Benzonia at (231) 882-0591 or visit www.millscommunityhouse.org.