Money Woes Close Graham Dance Company

Citing major financial problems, the Board of Directors of the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance voted Thursday to immediately cease operations of the dance company and the school that bears Graham’s name. Both are based in New York City.

Arguably the greatest American choreographer and one of the greatest dance stars of the century, Graham formed the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in 1927, developing a modern dance technique, repertory and company that created a whole new 20th century branch of the art.

The company, the primary repository of Graham’s work and one of the world’s leading dance troupes, has in recent months been riven by disputes over leadership and financial matters.

“They haven’t raised the money to go on,” explained Ron Protas, Graham’s heir, head of the Graham Trust (which owns all her choreographies), center board member and the company’s former artistic director. “It is a great sadness for me that it will not continue after so many people have given so selflessly.”

According to Michael Quinn, attorney for the trust, the Graham Dance Company’s recently completed American tour (which included a performance at Cal State Los Angeles on April 15) generated a deficit of $300,000, putting the center “a half a million dollars in the red” for this year alone.

Noting that the company is currently $70,000 in arrears on payroll to date, Quinn said the board determined that an amount or pledge of at least $325,000 would be needed right away in order to continue operations--but “there is no foreseeable income [of that size] on the horizon.”

Judith Schlosser, board member for more than 20 years and former board chair, told The Times that “we were presented with the figures of what it would take, in terms of financial support, to continue on and we found that we could not be fair to people [we employed] and go forward. The company and school are closed down and we hope it is temporary.”

This crisis in the Graham center’s turbulent history comes two months after conflicts between Protas and the board over the running of the company and ongoing fund-raising difficulties led the board to vote 7 to 5 to remove Protas as artistic director.

Quinn said one of the justifications for this action was the hopes of some board members that Protas’ departure might spur new donations from funding sources opposed to his presence. But that strategy has not been successful thus far and, as Protas’ contract with the center gives him ongoing casting approval over all the roles Graham had danced, distancing him from the company has been problematic.

Protas, a former dance photographer who became Graham’s ally late in her life, was selected and trained by Graham herself to run the company before her death in 1991.

Two years ago, Protas has agreed to allow Janet Eilber, a former Graham principal and co-founder of the Los Angeles-based American Repertory Dance Company, to become artistic director starting this June. As the disputes between Protas and the board increased, however, he expressed doubts about her qualifications.

Eilber told The Times that, due to the company’s financial instability and Protas’ change of mind, she had told the board in February that she couldn’t “commit to moving my family to New York, but I will continue to do the job from California.”

In the meantime, she offered to continue working as principal artistic advisor with Terese Capucilli and Christine Dakin, two veteran Graham principals who are also associate artistic directors. And she was listed as an artistic advisor when the company appeared at Cal State Los Angeles last month.

Arguing for the original agreement, Schlosser said that “if [Protas] could go along with the terms as outlined, putting in a new artistic director--Janet Eilber, whom he selected--and restrain himself from making turmoil, perhaps we could reestablish the center.”

But Quinn said that, however unpleasant or disruptive the conflict between the board and Protas may have become in recent years, the vote Thursday did not reflect any other factors than, in his words, “the institution collapsing under the weight of its own financial mismanagement.”

Cancellation of the company’s tour plans would affect a number of American arts institutions, starting with the American Dance Festival in Durham, N.C., where the company was scheduled to perform from June 8 to 10, and including the UCLA Center for the Arts, where an Oct. 6 and 7 engagement was planned.