Cave of the Heart

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into Medea (ballet). (Discuss) Learn more

Cave of the Heart is a one-act ballet

choreographed by Martha Graham to
music by Samuel Barber.[1] It was first
performed on May 10, 1946, with the title
Serpent Heart, at the second annual
Festival of Contemporary American Music
in the McMillin Theater of Columbia
University. Serpent Heart was
commissioned by the festival sponsor, The
Alice M. Ditson Fund.[2]

Overview
The piece is loosely based on the Medea
myth.[2] The choreography is rich in
Jungian symbolism, an important
influence on Graham.[3] According to the
1946 program notes, the work is “much
like the myth of Jason, the warrior hero,
and Medea, granddaughter of the sun…a
dance of possessive and destroying
love…”[2] The four-person original cast
included Graham as One Like Medea, Erick
Hawkins as One Like Jason, Yuriko as The
Princess and May O’Donnell as The
Chorus.[4] The set was designed by Isamu
Noguchi, the costumes by Edythe
Gilfond.[2]

The ballet is approximately 28 minutes in

length with seven movements/parts:
Parados, Choros, Young Princess Dance
and Dance of Jason, Choros, Medea's
dance, Kanticos Agomas and Exodus (with
fanfare of trumpets).[5] The dance is part
of Graham's “Greek Cycle,” which also
includes Night Journey, a retelling of the
Oedipus story, Errand into the Maze, and
Clytemnestra, a ballet based on the
Oresteia.[6]The New York Times reviewer
John Martin found the original ballet more
of a draft that a finished work and thought
the story missed the “force of the Medea
myth, because here the Medea kills only
the daughter of the king, who is her rival
for Jason’s love…In the myth itself, she
kills her own children in order to torture
Jason, their father. There is almost too
much wrath and passion here for so usual
a denouement.” Martin deemed the music
“brilliant” and the set “remarkable.”[2]

The ballet was revised and renamed by

Graham for the following season. Cave of
the Heart was first performed on 27
February 1947, at the Ziegfeld Theater in
New York. It featured the same cast but
different character names: Graham as The
Sorceress, Hawkins as The Adventurer and
Yuriko as The Victim. The name of
O’Donnell's character, The Chorus,
remained the same.[4] Graham invented
one of her signature movements for the
ballet, a step subsequently known as the
"cave turn." The motion is a swooping
heads-down spin in arabesque penché
with a torso contraction.[7]

John Martin critiqued the premiere of Cave

of the Heart for the February 28 edition of
the Times. He described the piece as
“greatly strengthened” but added it would
“probably never rank among the
masterpieces of the Graham repertoire.”[8]
Graham's ballet begins well into the myth,
when abandoned by Jason and exiled
from her home, The Sorceress (Medea)
plots revenge on her husband and her
rival. Inflamed by jealousy, she murders
the princess, Jason's new wife, and kills
her own two children. Donning a metal
garment of flame-like spikes, she becomes
symbolically trapped in a prison of her
imagining.[9]

Cave of the Heart was one of Graham's

favorite dances.[10] Despite the anti-
heroine's dark and brutal nature, the piece
is ultimately a tale of transformation, as
The Sorceress, cleansed by fire, returns to
her father the Sun. Cave of the Heart is still
in the Graham Dance Company
repertory.[1] It is one of the troupe's most
enduring ballets and is considered a
classic.[6] The documentary film An
Evening of Conversation and Dance with
Martha Graham includes Cave of the Heart,
as well as Errand into the Maze (1947) and
Acts of Light (1981).[11]

References
1. Martha Graham Dance Company
Repertory
 http://marthagraham.org/press-
presenters2/repertory
2. John Martin, Ballet by Graham in
World Premiere, The New York Times,
May 11, 1946
http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.
natlib.ihas.200153626/pageturner.ht
ml
3. The Red Book of Carl G. Jung: Its
Origins and Influence, Jung's Cultural
Legacy, Library of Congress
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/red-
book-of-carl-jung/jungs-cultural-
legacy.html
4. Wayne Clifford Wentzel, Samuel
Barber: A Guide to Research,
Psychology Press, 2001, p.33-34
5. Samuel Barber, Medea (Serpent Heart)
(rev. as Cave of the Heart), ballet, Op.
23, AllMusic.com
http://www.allmusic.com/composition
/medea-serpent-heart-rev-as-cave-of-
the-heart-ballet-op-23-mc0002361001
 . Martha Graham Dance Company,
Touring Repertory 2016-2017, Classics
by Martha Graham
http://www.shaganarts.com/images/2
016%20EPK%20(06-12-15).pdf
Archived 2015-12-22 at the Wayback
Machine
7. Stuart Hodes, Part Real, Part Dream:
Dancing with Martha Graham, Concord
ePress, August 2011, location 1097
 . John Martin, Cave of the Heart Danced
by Graham, The New York Times,
February 28, 1947
http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.
natlib.ihas.200153677/pageturner.ht
ml
9. Alice Helpern, Martha Graham: A
special issue of the journal
Choreography and Dance, Routledge,
1999, p. 62
10. David Nicholson, Dancers Are The
Legacy Of Graham, Daily Press,
January 29, 1992
http://articles.dailypress.com/1992-
01-
29/features/9201290386_1_embattled
-garden-ron-protas-louis-horst
11. An Evening of Conversation and Dance
with Martha Graham, Great
Performances: Dance in America,
December 14, 1984
http://www.locatetv.com/tv/great-
performances-dance-in-america/105
1401
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Cave_of_the_Heart&oldid=948458799"

Last edited 6 months ago by Noahfgodard

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