Arts & Lectures Hosts Dinner with Martha Graham Artistic Director Janet Eilber

On October 4, UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) hosted an intriguing and enjoyable Producers Circle dinner at Villa & Vine to celebrate the opening night of its 2022-23 Dance Series. Preceding a performance by the Martha Graham Dance Company at the Granada, the dinner featured a talk by the company’s artistic director, Janet Eilber, about Graham’s formative teenage years in Santa Barbara and other interesting topics.

The high-level A&L donors enjoyed a reception, followed by dinner, in the space formerly occupied by Petros. A&L Miller McCune Executive Director Celesta Billeci welcomed the 77 guests, introduced Eilber, and led a Q&A afterward.

Eilber explained how she was lucky to have danced with Graham in the 1970s. She shared her excitement for the launch week of a three-year celebration of the company’s 100th anniversary. Three years, she explained, was needed for this world tour that seeks to represent all of Graham’s creative work, her collaborators’ work, her political activism, and her modernism.

Eilber related how Graham’s teenage years in Santa Barbara helped inform her entire creative life. Born in Pittsburg in 1894, then the coal capital of the country, Graham had to wear a veil year-round to keep coal dust off of her clothes. When she moved to Santa Barbara as a young teenager, Graham found the space and light so intoxicating that she would just run and spin around. The “dichotomy between these two landscapes have informed her entire creative life — the difference between light and dark and the energy she discovered here.” 

Her time in Santa Barbara also informed Graham’s belief in dance as a necessity. All of this and more she discovered, according to Eilber, while being the captain of the S.B. High School basketball team (at a modest 5′2″ tall) and editor of the yearbook.

In response to a UCSB dance student seeking advice, Eilber said that when she holds an audition, she is looking for someone who shares themselves, really allowing their personality to inform their dancing. Further advice was to work hard, look to people you admire, and become an incredible athlete.

While in Santa Barbara, dancers from the company generously did three masterclasses with UCSB students and workshops at both S.B. High School and San Marcos High School. Eilber also did a presentation about the Granada performance for a group of UCSB student attendees. All of this is in line with A&L’s commitment to education and outreach. More than half of visiting artists and lecturers who are coming this season will engage in some form of outreach or educational activity.

After the incredible performance at the Granada, UCSB faculty member Ninotchka Bennahum did a Q&A session with Eilber and company members Lloyd Knight and Anne Souder.

Benefits of Producers Circle membership extend beyond these dinners. Members also enjoy receptions, A&L’s Season Announcement Party, a ticketing concierge service, priority seating, and admission to the Intermission Lounge at the Granada. Arts & Lectures relies heavily on community support to sustain its lectures, performances, and community outreach and education.