Judge rules for Graham Center

In a decision hailed as a victory by the Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance, a U.S. District Court judge in New York has found that seven Graham dances -- including the seminal works “Embattled Garden” and “Phaedra” -- belong to the center rather than to Ron Protas, Graham’s personal heir.

Also confirmed by the court was that “Tanagra,” a dance from the 1920s that was published without copyright notice, is in the public domain and that the 1979 televised excerpt from the ballet “Frescoes” for the Kennedy Center Honors does not change the center’s ownership of that dance.

The judgment, by Judge Miriam Goldman, issued on June 23 and announced Monday by the center, is the latest in a long legal battle over copyright between the center and Protas, who had taken over as artistic director of the center after Graham’s death in 1991. His employment was terminated in 2000, and the following year Protas filed suit against the organization and individual members of the center board of trustees, claiming ownership of Graham’s name and all of her dances, costumes, sets and related materials.

In August 2004, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that choreographer Graham did not own most of the works she created and therefore could not leave them to Protas. Affirming a lower court ruling, the judgment said she had assigned the dances that she created before 1956 to the center and that Graham was an “employee” of the center from 1966 until 1991; therefore, the dances she choreographed in her later years were works for hire and not her property.

At that time, however, the court remanded seven dances from the period 1956 to 1966, including “Embattled Garden” and “Phaedra,” to the lower court to determine their ownership.

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Diane Haithman