Tickets
General Ticket: $25
Members: $20
Oliver Tobin, curator of Martha Graham: Collaborations, and Janet Eilber, Artistic Director of Martha Graham Dance Company, invite you to an intimate evening exploring the exhibition. Tobin and Eilber bring their insights of not only of the exhibition but also a unique, shared experience: both Tobin and Eilber enjoyed long careers as dancers in the Martha Graham Dance Company, and the latter worked directly with the famed choreographer herself. Together, Tobin and Eilber will explore the depth of materials and histories embedded in the show with the added gusto and intrigue of their rare first-hand expertise with the subject matter. Following the discussion there will be a Q&A.
This program is a part of the exhibition programmed for Martha Graham: Collaborations, which is on view through March 22nd during our normal exhibition hours.
OLIVER TOBIN
Curator
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Oliver Tobin is a former dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, where he performed in seminal works including Appalachian Spring, Clytemnestra, Diversion of Angels, El Penitente, Embattled Garden, and more. His theatrical credits include Off-Broadway productions of The Kentucky Cycle, The Lesser Magoo, Niranov, and Tallahassee.
As a Regisseur of the Graham repertory, Oliver has staged and directed a range of works, including Celebration, Episodes, Panorama, Maple Leaf Rag, and Diversion of Angels. In 2019, he reimagined and choreographed a new interpretation of Graham’s American Document (1938), which premiered in Los Angeles.
Oliver’s work in arts education and cultural diplomacy spans two decades. As Director of Teens@Graham, he designed and led comprehensive choreography and technique programs for New York City public arts schools, including Talented Unlimited High School, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, Bronx Dance Academy, and the Urban Assembly School of the Arts. As a cultural ambassador with Battery Dance Company, he facilitated modern dance workshops throughout Germany and Africa. His teaching credits include faculty positions at Adelphi University, LaGuardia High School, Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, and the Martha Graham School.
In 2016, Oliver was appointed Director of Martha Graham Resources, where he led the preservation and stewardship of the Company’s extensive archive, spanning materials from 1894 to 2021—including costumes, production designs, photographs, ephemera, and personal items. He facilitated the relocation of the archive to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center and implemented a digital archive to broaden access and support licensing for theaters, museums, academic institutions, and media. He has also curated and produced Graham-focused exhibitions for Google Arts & Culture, SFMOMA, and Museum Folkwang.
Oliver holds degrees and certifications from the American Musical & Dramatic Academy, the Sivananda Yoga Institute, and Empire State College. He is based in Sherman, Connecticut, where he is the founder and owner of HOMORGANIZED, a company dedicated to thoughtful, efficient, home and business organization.
JANET EILBER
Artistic Director of Martha Graham Dance Company
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Janet Eilber has been Artistic Director of the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance Company since 2005. Her creative curation has pioneered new forms of audience access to the Graham legacy. These diverse initiatives include her popular spoken introductions, thematic programming, unusual educational and cultural partnerships, licensing of the Graham classics to schools and professional companies, the use of new media and technology, commissions for today’s top choreographers and a wide range of creative events such as the Lamentation Variations, The 19 Poses, All-City Panorama and the Clytemnestra Remash Challenge. Ms. Eilber has reconstructed the lost Graham solos Satyric Festival Song and Immediate Tragedy and remixed Graham choreography for productions of The Bacchae and Prometheus Bound at the Teatro Greco in Siracusa, Italy, and for an upcoming production, The Feast with the Long Beach Opera starring renowned countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński.
Ms. Eilber is a graduate of the Juilliard School where she was mentored by teachers of the Graham and Limón legacies and directed by José Limón in several of his classics. While still at Juilliard, she was invited to join the Graham Company where she worked closely with Martha Graham for almost a decade. She danced many of Graham’s greatest roles, had roles created for her by Graham, and was directed by Graham in most of the major roles of the repertory. She soloed at the White House, was partnered by Rudolf Nureyev, starred in three segments of Dance in America, and worked with Graham’s major collaborators such as Isamu Noguchi, Aaron Copland and Halston. She has since taught, lectured, and directed Graham ballets internationally for companies such as the Dutch National Ballet and the Paris Opera Ballet.
Apart from her work with Graham, Ms. Eilber has co-starred in films such as Whose Life is it Anyway? with Richard Dreyfuss, and Romantic Comedy with Dudley Moore. She was featured in several television series in the 1980s and danced and acted on and off Broadway directed by such greats as Agnes DeMille and Bob Fosse. For her performance in Stepping Out directed by Tommy Tune, she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Featured Actress in a Play. Ms. Eilber received four Lester Horton Awards for her reconstruction and performance of seminal American modern dance. She served as Director of Arts Education for the Dana Foundation, guiding the Foundation’s support for Teaching Artist training and contributing regularly to its publications. She is a Trustee Emeritus of the Interlochen Center for the Arts and was recently honored with a Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Juilliard School.
At the 2022 celebration of the 50th anniversary of her first performance with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Ms. Eilber received a congratulatory letter from President and First Lady Biden saluting her half-century contribution to the arts in America. She is married to screenwriter/NYU professor John Warren, with whom she has two daughters, Madeline and Eva.