Graham 100 Bratislava
[ SEP 14-21 2026 ]
BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA
G4EU celebrates #100YearsOfGraham
To mark the centennial of the Martha Graham Dance Company, Graham For Europe joins its partners across Europe in a Special Edition of 12 Intensives, taking place throughout the continent in 2026.
#100YearsOfGraham
Bratislava 2026
Academy of Performing Arts
Zochova 1, 811 03 Staré Mesto, Slovakia
(for the advanced level)
Dance Conservatory of Eva Jacz
Gorazdova 20, 811 04 Staré Mesto, Slovakia
(for the beginner-intermediate level)
ABOUT THE LEVELS
Beginner-Intermediate: for dancers with a background in dance who have no experience or little experience in the Martha Graham Technique. This level is an accessible introduction to the technique and creative work of Martha Graham.
Advanced: for dancers with a solid experience in the Martha Graham Technique. In this level, students are expected to know the core principles, main series, and vocabulary of the technique.
Minimum age 15 years old - No maximum age
GRAHAM TECHNIQUE
The Graham Technique is a foundational pillar of modern dance and remains one of the most precise, demanding, and expressive movement systems developed to date.
Through principles such as contraction and release, spirals, opposition, breath, and weight, dancers develop strength, clarity, musicality, and emotional integrity. These tools have shaped generations of artists and influenced major companies and institutions worldwide, including Batsheva Dance Company, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Ballet Nacional de México, and many others.
Creative Workshop (for Beginner-Intermediate)
Creativity sits at the heart of the Martha Graham work and its dissemination across pedagogic and performance contexts. The Creative Workshop gives the teacher full artistic freedom to work through the lens of Graham’s philosophy and creative process, exploring how to physicalize, embody and share themes and narratives with intention, honesty and power.
Repertory Workshop (for Advanced)
Participants will learn excerpts from Martha Graham’s Clytemnestra (1947), embodying the chorus material and Cassandra solo in a repertory class setting. Choreographed in 1958, it is the culminating piece of theater in Martha Graham’s Greek Cycle, a work of “giant stature,” according to New York Times critic John Martin. This class offers participants the opportunity to discover the movement and expressive world behind the piece.
Together, we honour 100 years of one of the most influential movement languages in modern dance and the European community that keeps it alive today.
FACULTY
BLAKELEY WHITE-MCGUIRE
Blakeley White-McGuire was born and raised in South Louisiana and currently lives in New York City as a creative artist, dancer, choreographer, répétiteur, educator and writer. Her performance and creative repertory spans genres from historical modern dance to contemporary dance theater including site-specific improvisation and dance on camera.
Blakeley has received choreographic commissions from The Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, Dancing Human Rights (Oxford University, U.K.), Downtown Dance Festival, Danza en Arte Pietrasanta, Italy, New Ballet Ensemble, Jacob’s Pillow’s INSIDE/ OUT Festival, Dance Films Association, Baton Rouge Ballet Theater, Movement Migration, Axelrod Contemporary Ballet, Women in Dance Leadership, Ballet Metropolitano de Medellín, Colombia, the Martha Graham Dance Company, American Dance Festival and The Ailey School.
She received international critical acclaim as Principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company for her performances of iconic roles of 20th-century modern dance, including Lamentation and Errand Into the Maze, receiving the prestigious Positano Premia La Danza Award for Contemporary Dance among others. She has been described as a dancer of “powerful technique, dramatic instinct and an appealing modern spunk ” – The New York Times. Simultaneously and throughout her career, Blakeley has danced in new 21st-century works by contemporary artists including in Jacquelyn Buglisi’s Table of Silence, Martha Clarke, Sean Curran, Nacho Duato, Daniel Ezralow, Larry Kegwin, Richard Move, Bulareyaung Pagarlava, Robert Wilson and Anne Bogart SITI/ Company. She was appointed Artist-In-Residence at Loyola University Chicago Fall 2021.
Blakeley holds her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College and is an official stager of Martha Graham’s masterworks. Her passion for collaboration through thoughtful and respectful cultural exchange with communities throughout New York City and abroad has supported her work as facilitator of professional development for the Department of Education. Blakeley serves as a faculty member of The Ailey School, Hunter College City of New York and is the author of The Martha Graham Dance Company: House of the Pelvic Truth which was released by Bloomsbury Publishing UK in 2022. Her current projects include the children’s play, Los Sapos Valientes (Brave New Frogs) about cleaning up our water sources and caring for all creatures great and small, and C.A.V.E.S.: Entre el cuerpo y la naturaleza which explore liminality between art, sexuality, human bodies and connection as part of Nature through movement, sound, music, dance and visual art.
Lorenzo Pagano
Lorenzo Pagano is an international award-winning contemporary performer whose career has spanned across concert dance, theatre and opera. He started his career by joining the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2012, becoming a Principal Guest Artist and Assistant Rehearsal Director in 2023. He has embodied the most iconic male roles of the repertory and originated starring roles for new works by Lucinda Childs, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Nacho Duato, Andonis Foniadakis, Pontus Lidberg, Hofesh Shechter among others. In addition, Pagano is a regisseur for the Martha Graham Center and has restaged ballets for UNCSA, Rome Opera Ballet School, and Joffrey Ballet in Chicago.
In 2024, Pagano was part of the original cast of the musical GATSBY choreographed by Sonya Tayeh and directed by Rachel Chavkin, with music by Florence Welch and Thomas Bartlett.
He performed during the 24/25 season at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in the productions Ainadamar (Deborah Colker) and Anthony and Cleopatra (Annie-B Parson).
Pagano has been a guest artist for the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company and La Compañia Nacional de Danza de Costa Rica, and he danced in Unveiling choreographed by Sonya Tayeh with music by Moses Sumney.
He has danced with Paris Opéra, former Étoile, and Artistic Director Aurélie Dupont in Martha Graham’s Lament and partnered Royal Ballet Principal Dancer Joseph Sissens in US by Christopher Wheeldon at PAAX in Mexico.
In 2023, he was Assistant Choreographer for the Holiday Event in collaboration with Christian Dior and Martha Graham Company at Sack’s NYC.
Pagano was honored with the Italian International Dance Award as “Male Rising Star” in 2016 and the Premio Nazionale La Sfera d’Oro in 2022.
FREE EVENTS SEPTEMBER 2026
Academy of Performing Arts
Zochova 1, 811 03 Staré Mesto, Slovakia
MONDAY SEPT 21 – Student Showings, Performance & Talks (time TBA)
- Advanced level repertory showing
- Intermediate level showing of material developed during the Creative Workshop, offering participants the opportunity to share their process and artistic voice within a supportive framework.
- Lucifer solo choreographed by Martha Graham, performed by Lorenzo Pagano.
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SCHEDULE BRATISLAVA 2026
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GRAHAM FOR EUROPE celebrates #100YearsOfGraham
12 months. 12 events. 12 countries.
To mark the centennial of the Martha Graham Dance Company, Graham For Europe joins its partners across Europe in a Special Edition of 12 Intensives, taking place throughout the continent in 2026.
Developed in dialogue with artists and institutions throughout Europe, these intensives offer spaces for rigorous technical training, creative exploration, and cultural exchange. Led and organized by internationally recognised teachers, and researchers, they connect Martha Graham’s legacy with contemporary practice and today’s artistic realities.
Together, we honour 100 years of one of the most influential movement languages in modern dance and the European community that keeps it alive today.
FOR ANY INQUIRIES OR QUESTIONS REGARDING THE PROJECT,
DON’T HESITATE TO CONTACT US AT: 100YearsOfGraham@grahamforeurope.com