Medea solo from Martha Graham's "Cave of the Heart" (excerpt)

CAVE OF THE HEART (excerpt)
Choreography and Costumes by Martha Graham
Music by Samuel Barber
Set by Isamu Noguchi
Original lighting by Jean Rosenthal /
Adapted by Beverly Emmons

Premiere: May 10, 1946, Columbia University, New York City

Dancer: Xin Ying
Filmed Summer 2017 at Teatro Royal, Madrid, Spain

"Cave of the Heart" is a study of the destructive powers of love, the dark passions that guard the human heart, coiled like a serpent ready to strike when attacked. In the myth, Medea, a sorceress, falls in love with Jason and uses her magical powers to help him gain the Golden Fleece. Sacrificing all that is dear to her, she flees with him to Corinth. But Jason is ambitious and abandons Medea. Betrayed and exiled, Medea plots a course that will end with the death of her rival, the Princess, and the murder of her own two children. The Chorus, foreseeing the tragedy about to be enacted, tries to prevent it, and suffers its deepest meaning.