By He Jianwei

Martha Graham defined contemporary dance the way Pablo Picasso defined painting and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart defined music. The American dancer and choreographer has become a legend in dance history.

This weekend, Martha Graham Dance Company perform at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), bringing 10 classic works to two performances with the themes Mythology and Fable and the American Chronicle.

"The masterworks of Martha Graham will reach the new Chinese audience and - even more – give them insight to American culture of the 20th century since it is deeply embedded in Martha's works," Janet Eilber, art director of the dance company, said

Born in 1894 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Martha Graham was the eldest daughter of a prominent and strict Presbyterian doctor. At age 16, Graham saw a poster for a dance performance in Los Angeles. It was a revelation for her, and she decided to devote her life to dance.

In 1926, she set up her own dance company, the oldest and most celebrated contemporary one in the US. Her first performance in her own dance company came on April 18 that year. The first major American dance critic John Martin said her performance was the birth of American contemporary dance.

Graham invented a new language of movement and used it to reveal the passion, rage and ecstasy of the human experience. Her early dance was not well-received by her audience.

"Before Martha's revolution in the 1930s, dance was decorative and escapist. Her technique was based on natural human body language.... It was theatrical, athletic and some say erotic," Eilber said.

Graham danced and choreographed for over 70 years, and during that time she was the first dancer to perform at The White House. "I have spent all my life on dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable," said Graham, who died in 1991.

Eilber worked with Graham as a dancer beginning 1972. "Martha was not able to move easily. She sat in a chair in the studio every day, directing her ballets and creating new pieces," Eilber said.

What impressed her most about Graham was "a talent that I believe was the basis of her genius. She could understand people just by looking at them and watching the way they moved. She immediately and intuitively knew who you were, your strengths and your insecurities," she said.

Graham's ability to reveal the truth about life through dance was the most precious gift left to Eilber and the company. "Her instinctual connection to deep human emotions influences us most. I have danced Graham ballets from Singapore to St Louis. Audiences everywhere recognize themselves in [her] dances. She connects us all as human beings," she said.

Many artists worked with the company before, such as Woody Allen, Aaron Copland and Madonna. In the mid-1970s, Woody Allen took three months of dance courses at the company. "Graham understood the most essential [parts] of theater, including movement, music and drama. Woody was fascinated with the drama and he tried to [understand] how Graham could have a deeper connection with the audience," she said.

During their Beijing's debut, the company will perform 10 repertories. “In my opinion, Night Journey, which is on our Myths and Fables program, is Martha’s greatest choreographic work. The dance is the greatest example of any of Martha’s innovations. It is a most special example of her revolutionary use of time on stage,” she said

Night Journey tells the classic Greek myth of Oedipus, the man who married his mother and had children by her. "But Martha tells this story from the woman's point of view. The dance begins at the end of the story. Queen Jocasta, having realized the truth - that she has married her own son – lifts the rope above her head and is about to end her life. The entire dance takes place in her memory in the seconds before death," she said.

Greek myths are better received by audiences than her second program: American Chronicle. "Although the Graham dances were born out of American thought and philosophy, they are recognized as masterpieces because they are timeless and they provide a universal message. The style may be foreign to our new Chinese audience, but the themes and emotional messages are recognizable worldwide. Martha's work is about human to human communication," she said.

Even though the dances they present are decades old, they strive to make their impact current and powerful. "In my direction of the company, I believe it is important to keep the emotional message of each dance powerful and relevant to ach new generation," she said.

Graham despised the term "modern dance" and preferred "contemporary dance." She thought the concept of what was "modern" was constantly changing and was thus inexact as a definition. A loved the fact that each new generation of dancers was more and more physical and technically adept. She allowed dancers to use their increased technical level, but she always insisted that the emotional communication remain true," she said.

They also work in other ways to find a new way to present dance that serves the new audiences. "Contemporary dance has always been about the new each new generation of artists has rejected what has gone before. Now that the art form is about 100 years old, we are asking how to honor and celebrate the masterpieces of the early years," she said.

Could it be possible to move forward and at the same time celebrate the past?

It was a question that contemporary dance faced for the first time after Eilber took over the artistic director position in 2005.

“We are adding context to programs and creating programs that will illuminate different aspects of Martha's connection to all areas of culture such as theater, music, psychology, politics, poetry and literature,” she said.

Eilber worked with NCPA and created thematic programs for Beijing's performances that will give more contexts to Chinese audiences. "We want to provide many points of access to Martha's work for different types of audiences. We have also commissioned new work that relates to the Graham works. For example, we premiered the Lamentation Variations in 2007, which includes short dances by three noteworthy new choreographers all inspired by Graham's iconic solo, Lamentation," she said.

They also thought about how to incorporate technology into their performances to give the audience more information. "We have started with simple steps such as adding projected supertitles to Clytemnestra, Martha's only full-evening ballet. We also have a program that connects several dances with narration and projection of photos and film clips to place the dances in their historic context," she said.

Alan Kriegsman of the Washington Post referred to the company as "one of the seven wonders of the artistic universe." Graham's dance perfectly connects dance and theater.