Graham100 Programming

Presented by the CTAC School of Ballet

This event is part of a global celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Martha Graham Dance Company, the country’s oldest dance company.

This program honors Graham’s pioneering legacy with stagings of two of her most renowned dance works, “Appalachian Spring” (1944) and “Lamentation” (1930). Project Director Peter Sparling, former Graham principal dancer, also reimagines Graham's 1938 dance/theater piece, “American Document” as a community collaboration that explores local and personal histories gleaned from testimonials of a cross-section of members of the local population. “Our Own American Document” boldly fuses dance, music and the spoken word as it asks what it means to be an American living in a democracy in the Little Traverse Bay area.

Great Lakes Center for the Arts' Next Gen program students will enjoy a special opportunity to learn about and experience the art of storytelling through dance. Narrated by Peter Sparling, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan and former Principal Dancer for the Martha Graham Dance Company, this ‘lecture-demonstration’ is part of a national, 100th anniversary celebration of Martha Graham’s artistry and profound impact on the world of dance.

Including historical insights and well-known music from Appalachian Spring, the performance features dancers from northern Michigan performing well-known works created by Martha Graham. We don’t always need words to communicate; this unique event will engage, teach, and inspire middle and high school students with stories told through movement, costumes and music.

The CTAC School of Ballet Video Crew: Historic dance in film
Finley Van Patten, Operations Coordinator: School of Ballet

Join the CTAC School of Ballet Video Crew for a presentation of student screendance works inspired by some of Martha Graham's original choreographies. Learn the process dance creators go through to bring their choreography into the medium of video and how early choreographers who worked with film shaped the field of screendance today.

This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.

Join the Zoom link forthcoming
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Days: Thursday, 5:00 - 7:00pm, June 25
Instructor: Dave Harrell
Skill Level: This class is perfect for anyone who is eager to learn how to perfectly capture dance and theater performances and the art of dramatic dance portraiture. If you are feeling overwhelmed with all of the camera settings, lighting equipment, or just want to learn how to capture stunning performance photographs then this class is for you!
Supply List: Camera. Lenses (Multiple focal ranges). Flash trigger if you have one.

The instruction guides you in the technical and artistic aspects of dance photography with simple and easy to understand concepts that lead to consistent results using your own camera and lenses. We will touch on the basics of strobe lighting and learn how to seek out light during a performance in order to produce jaw-dropping images. You take part in setup to demonstrate where lights are placed and how to find the best settings for your camera and lights.

Dave Harrell is a commercial, editorial, and portrait photographer who focuses in storytelling. He has over a decade of professional photography experience, working under the name The Crooked Porch Photography. His passion is dance and theater photography and portraiture, and he works closely with CTAC's School of Ballet.

Choreography: The Creative Process
Robin Petterson, Choreographer

Robin Pettersen will be discussing the process of creating concert dance for the stage. She will share video segments of her pieces performed to a variety of composers. Robin will describe teaching Composition to university students and her participation in the Mentoring Workshops for the Crooked Tree School of Ballet.

This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.

Join the Zoom link forthcoming
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IN MOTION: Making Art Dance - Select Local Arts Panel
Connie Landis, Lesley Pritchard, Jennifer Shorter; Moderator: Jennifer Cantley

This artist panel brings together featured artists from IN MOTION: Making Art Dance for a lively conversation about translating movement into visual form. Panelists will share insights into their creative processes. The discussion will offer audiences a deeper understanding of how contemporary artists approach expressing energy, and movement, and invites attendees to engage more closely with the ideas and techniques behind the work on view.

This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.

Zoom link forthcoming
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Dialogue and Movement
Benjamin Cheney, Founder and Artistic Director of Croft Residency

In his Coffee @ 10 talk Ben will share through dialogue and movement about the emotional and visceral weight of embodied expression. He will speak about his experience exploring the Graham technique. How it can be a tool for opening the expression of emotional pathways through embodiment. How the technique provides a structure that highlights and empowers vulnerability and passion. He will open dialogue on the power of witness, and what it means to be seen. We will seed the connection between witness, vulnerability, and developmental movement patterns/pathways.

This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.

Join the Zoom link forthcoming
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Small Sets, Big Stories: Stop-Motion and the Art of Personal Narrative
Tamara Finlay (GHAR artist)

In this artist talk, I’ll share my process as a stop-motion animator exploring memory, cultural identity, and neurodivergence through handcrafted puppets and miniature sets. I’ll show clips from my films and discuss how personal stories can be translated into animated performance using simple materials and expressive visual language. Followed by a short Q&A.

This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.

Join the Zoom link forthcoming
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The Elusive Practice of Framing Motion
Peter Sparling, Rudolf Arnheim Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Dance and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor Emeritus of Dance at University of Michigan.

As a dancer/choreographer, video artist, painter and CTAC guest curator, I attempt to locate the intersection of my many roles as a still point of suspended animation, one that I can circle around and bring to a halt long enough to talk about. The vibrating juxtaposition of dance, music, and the visual arts featured in Dance Legends: Little Traverse Bay Celebrates Graham100 takes us on a wild ride while hovering between stillness and motion, the art gallery and the stage, the “pose” and the “move”. What does the gallery visitor or audience member bring to these acts of kinetic engagement in order to meet the artist halfway? Who’s zooming who? My informal talk proposes ways of looking at the legendary dance photography of Barabara Morgan, the contemporary visual art of In Motion in the adjoining gallery, and how they invariably awaken the same kinesthetic empathy that moves us while watching or performing dance.

This event is in-person and online via Zoom and Facebook. No registration required.

Join the Zoom link forthcoming
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This performance features two of Graham's iconic works, Appalachian Spring (1944), starring CTAC School of Ballet dancers and alums, and Lamentation (1930), starring Marie Millard as the dancer and Thomas Nickell on piano. This performance also includes Our Own American Document, an original work of Peter Sparling 's modeled after Graham's 1938 masterwork, American Document. Our Own American Document features the oral histories of local citizens.