Blessed Unrest: a Fantasia on Martha Graham’s Demons

This once-revered pioneer of modern dance stands alone in her abandoned studio, confronting the agonizing stillness where movement once thrived. Now caught in the starless twilight of her life, Martha Graham faces the grim realities of life, as age, rheumatoid arthritis, and liquor erode her career and the exceptionally disciplined body which defined her and her technique. Through fragmented memories, she stumbles on flashes of triumph, rejection, epiphany, romance, sacrifice, sacrilege, and facing loss of control over her dancer’s instrument. Her mirror becomes adversary, reflecting a self she no longer recognizes. Over the course of many ounces of Smirnoff and a chaser or two of Nietzsche, she questions her worth beyond the spotlight and wrestles with the loss of legacy and love. Still, her desperation moves her to fan the dying ashes of a lifelong passion. A brief, cautionary tale...with generous amounts of humor and fiction, and hopefully more questions than answers...audiences are asked to reconsider the frail, fickle lines between dreams, identity, and reality.