This is FKA twigs dances Martha Graham
The rebellious spirit of Martha Graham has found a rebellious soulmate in another creative powerhouse. A classically trained dancer, she’s known in the world as an acclaimed recording artist. She moves like water. Her pole dancing is pretty astounding, too. This is FKA twigs.
On Thursday, she will make her debut as a dancer with the Graham company in the solo “Satyric Festival Song” ( 1932). “To me, this is, honestly, like winning a Grammy,” she s aid. “I feel like I’m winning a Grammy.”
At the company’ s gala performance, FKA twigs will slip into her costume, a bold and graphic striped dress designed by Graham. She will pop into the air as if the floor were on fire. She will twist and bend her body into jagged edges. And she will tease the audience with tilts of the head and dancing, expressive eyes. This is a solo inspired by rituals that Graham observed in the pueblos of the American Southwest, specifically, the kachina figures that served as comic relief at religious ceremonies. Graham was also poking fun at her serious, dramatic self.
An artist of vast imagination whose music defies genre, FKA twigs is adventurous in all of her pursuits. Her shimmering, fluent physicality, displayed over the years in videos and performances, is equally fearless and lissome.
“My values of success and achievement are maybe slightly different to other people’s,” FKA twigs said in an interview from London. Many of her colleagues will be at Coachella over the next two weeks ,“which is obviously such an honor ,” she said. “But I’ve spent the whole of my life in the dance studio. I studied Martha Graham’s technique at dance school. I took the class many times when I was a younger dancer.”
The Graham company, though, didn’t k now she had studied the technique. So how did this solo happen? Through that unofficial dance network known as Instagram.
Last year, the company posted a pandemic- era video of Laurel D alley Smith performing “Satyric Festival Song” in different locations in London. Being the Graham fan that she is, FKA twigs reposted it. The company thanked her in a DM and proposed doing a project together. “She immediately sent us the contact information for her manager,” said Janet Eilber, the group’s artistic director. And as the conversation progressed, Eilber said, the company asked, “Would she like to dance a Graham solo?”
The solo is a good fit for FKA twigs. “The attitude in ‘ Satyric Festival Song’ is so sort of flirtatious and comedic and quirky,” Eilber said. “And it’s one of the few Graham solos where the fourth wallis down, so this little character is basically speaking to the audience and having her way with them.”
Dalley Smith taught FKA twigs the solo and a series of Graham exercises in London ( and FKA twigs will continue to work on it in New York at the Graham studios). “It wasn’t just cut and paste, put it on, learn it, do it,” Dalley Smith said about the process. “It’s recognizing someone trying something new, recognizing someone wanting to not follow a certain path.”
Her artistic bra very echoes some choice words of Graham’s: More than 80 years ago, she told a despondent Agnes de Mille to “keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.”
For FKA twigs, the channel is wide. She is committed to being “bold and dynamic and to really make art,” she said. “And I mean really make art. I’m not talking about, l ike, really look fab on a red carpet or really slay in my music video, or really be a queen in a radio interview.”
She’s grateful for those opportunities, but artistic excellence is what matters to her. “When I die and I take my last breath, these are the things I’m going to be thinking about: What did I do with my life?” she said. “I want to say that I was kind, I worked hard, and I served my practice, and I made art. Next week I’m going to serve my practice.”