“It may surprise people to know that Martha Graham was a great believer in stillness. Though she was recognized as the genius inventor of an entirely new way of moving, Graham was a devotee of stopping time.”
These are words by Martha Graham Dance Company’s Artistic Director Janet Eilber, which is a beautiful way to introduce a book of dance photographs that stop time by necessity. Martha Graham founded her company in 1926, making it the oldest dance company in the United States, and this season it celebrates its 100th anniversary. Ken Browar and Deborah Ory’s book Martha Graham Dance Company: 100 Years celebrates this important anniversary year.
Browar and Ory have taken choreographic movements and original costume designs to photograph Ekstasis to the rocks by the sea, Lamentation and Satyric Festival Song on sandy dunes, Appalachian Spring and Frontier in the countryside in front of a split-rail fence, and many are in the studio settings that made the couple’s NYC Dance Project famous.
The coffee table book comes out on 7 October 2025 (Black Dog & Leventhal; Jacketed Hardcover, $75.00) with 200 photos spread over 300 pages, including archival photos of Martha Graham and her dancers shown in photos and images by Barbara Morgan, Andy Warhol, Miro, Philippe Halsman, Anthongy Crickmay, Martha Swope, Max Waldman and others.
The dancers photographed are members of the present company – So Young An, Lloyd Knight, Natasha Diamond-Walker, Marzia Memoli, Anne Souder, Xin Ying, Leslie Andrea Williams, Alessio Croganle-Roberts, Laurel Dalley Smith, Richard Villaverde, Lorenzo Pagano, Anne O’Donnell, Jacob Larsen, Charlotte Landreau, and other colleagues, and they recreate moments from 24 of Graham’s most famous works: Lamentation (1930), Primitive Mysteries (1931), Imperial Gesture (1935), Chronicle (1936), Appalachian Spring (1944), Night Journey (1947), Embattled Garden (1958), and Maple Leaf Rag (1990, Graham’s last complete work) are among the titles featured. Each work has a short description with notes on inspiration, costume design, set design, and the music Graham chose.
Martha Graham and George Balanchine are the Dorothy Parker and Oscar Wilde of dance – they were talented in uttering witty and memorable remarks, and this book has a smattering of Graham’s epigrams. “Dance is the breath made visible,” and “Nothing is more revealing than movement,” are both apposite for a book of dance photography… a sumptuously presented volume of gloriously photographed choreographic moments by one of the fundamental figures of dance history.
All photographs are excerpted from Martha Graham Dance Company 100 Years (Black Dog & Leventhal).
Copyright © 2025. Photographs by Ken Browar and Deborah Ory.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.