Home Nightlife Robert Wilson’s “Snow on the Mesa”: A Martha Graham performance and Gala

Robert Wilson’s “Snow on the Mesa”: A Martha Graham performance and Gala

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Bright lime, orange and yellow sorbet skirts, paired with sheer, white transparent sheaths, in “Very Young: Kachina Clowns,” lightened the air. Silly in every respect of the word, Wilson experiments with sound, facial exaggerations, and parody to generate laughter. He tones this down, in “Mirrors and Memory,” in which six dancers interact seductively, against a smooth, melancholic violin interlude. Engagement with each other slowly dissipates into self-reflection, as they each assume their own position, but not for long.

The ensemble reappears in the last performance: “Very Old: Ghost Walkers.” Wearing white, bearded and evoking Asian classical literature, feminine purity- balance and snow take the place of devilish reds, muscular blacks and color. Gliding along an imaginary ice, snow falls unto the dancers, reminiscent of a Japanese lily pond.


A trained architect, Wilson is reported to have constructed an apple with a crystal cube inside. “Movement in stillness”—Wilson reminds us to ‘keep our eyes where they belong—on the back of our head.” He notices patterns like no other, and reiterates what Martha Graham once told him: “I chart the graph of my heart…” and “Not unless the movement is inside me, can I dance.”

The Martha Graham opening gala pursuant to the performance at the Mandarin Oriental, welcomed several celebrities, including Robert DeNeiro, Rufus Wainwright and Katherine Crockett. Honoring Martha Graham as a “giant of the 21st century, not only as a choreographer but as an actress,” Wilson gave a prayerful speech reminding us all, that if Graham been born in France or Germany, the country would have been fully supported. “If we lose our culture, we lose our memory,” he concluded.

Robert Wislon, Grace Hightower and Robert DeNiro
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