Modern Dancer, Teacher and Choreographer Pearl Lang Dies at 87
Pearl Lang in Martha Graham’s Appalachian Spring.
Modern dancer, teacher and choreographer Pearl Lang died of a heart attack Tuesday at St. Luke's Hospital in Manhattan while recovering from recent hip surgery. She was 87.
A devout proponent of Martha Graham’s work, Lang was the first dancer to whom Graham entrusted seven of her own roles. She joined the Martha Graham Dance Company at age 19, after moving to New York City from Chicago, and was an original cast member of Appalachian Spring and Diversion of Angels. Lang danced with the company for 15 years before establishing her own company, Pearl Lang Dance Theater.
As she choreographed for her company, Lang continued to adhere to Graham technique, but imbued it with her own style in 59 works. The company performed at most of the major dance venues and festivals in the U.S. Boston Ballet, Netherlands National Ballet and the Batsheva Dance Company have also presented her work.
In 1970, Lang found a new space for the company in a former settlement house on East 59th St. The company moved into rehearsal space on the ground floor, leaving two full floors of open space. Lang worked with Alvin Ailey to establish a joint school in the space which became the American Dance Center.
Lang taught generations of dancers Martha Graham technique and dance composition in faculty positions at Yale, Neighborhood Playhouse, Juilliard and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, where she first began teaching in the 1950s. At the time of her death, she remained on faculty at the school. She taught an advanced class in the weeks prior to her death and presented her renowned composition course as recently as last summer.
Lang also had a lifelong interest in Jewish culture and the Yiddish language. Many of her dances were based on Yiddish themes or literature. She choreographed The Possessed, a work based on S. Ansky’s Yiddish play, The Dybbuk, in 1975 and directed a film version for it in 2001. A fluent Yiddish speaker, she often gave readings of Yiddish poetry.
A memorial service will be held at Parkside Memorial Chapel (98-60 Queens Boulevard, Forest Hills, NY, at 66th Avenue) on Sunday, March 1, at 11:15am. Burial will follow in Clifton, NJ.
To see a video tribute from the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, click here
“Pearl Lang’s accomplishments in the world of modern dance have been unusually varied and enduring. Her luminous presence graced the Martha Graham Dance Company, in which she danced leading roles from the 1940s to the early 1970s. As a star teacher, her influence has been felt at the Graham School, among aspiring actors at various drama schools (she is married to the actor Joseph Wiseman) and even by rock stars (Madonna was in her company.) Major revivals in the Graham company have benefited from her stagings and coaching. Since 1952 she has choreographed for her own troupe…There is no movement without emotional resonance in Pearl Lang’s choreography. The dances presented were exhilarating, all models of feeling expressively recreated on stage.”
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