In the early 1980s, when Martha Graham finally reconciled with Europe (which had terribly mistreated her during her first appearance in the 1950s), she brought her entire choreographic legacy back to our stages through a series of intense tours. A memorable company of dancers, led by a trio of outstanding protagonists—Terese Capucilli, Christine Dakin, and Jacqulyn Buglisi—were entrusted by Miss Martha with her final “letter to the world,” the challenging task of embodying her erotic ghosts, mythical creatures, and the many facets of femininity in a perpetual struggle with its ego and the world.
Each of the three appeared, in their own way, as the most faithful custodians of that choreographic and stylistic language, heirs and translators of a story that had revolutionized dance culture and that, at the end of the author’s life, was already preparing to safeguard its future destiny.
Thus, it was somewhat of a renunciation when Buglisi, along with her partner Donlin Foreman—also an excellent soloist in the Graham company—decided in 1992, one year after Graham's death, to leave the "House of Martha" (as Foreman recounts in his autobiographical book) to create her own company and embark on a personal theatrical journey. However, her intentions were precisely to protect and develop that spirit, but in a completely personal and autonomous way. As Jacqulyn stated: “Miss Martha’s technique is wonderfully theatrical and physical, an expressive way of moving like no other. Part of our mission is to continue her technique, which we seek to develop through our own voices.”
Thus, first alongside Capucilli and Dakin, then only with Foreman, and finally, since 2007, all alone with her Dance Theatre, Jacqulyn Buglisi has persistently pursued her vision of a post-Graham choreography, characterized by broad and energetic dynamics capable of translating the individual tremors of the soul. As evidenced by the programs presented at Oriente Occidente, once again, as in Graham’s work, the center of Jacqulyn’s imagination is female figures, less epic but no less legendary: from Sarah Bernhardt (in the solo Against All Odds) to Frida Kahlo (Frida).
The beloved challenge of translating pictorial intuitions into moving frescoes is evident in a title like Caravaggio Meets Hopper, but it also reveals once again Jacqulyn's artistic debt to Martha Graham's unmistakable assertive and dramatic use of masses in Requiem, considered by American critics to be the most significant work in Buglisi's repertoire.
