Dance Professor Brings Graham Expertise to Paris

Associate Professor of Dance Kim Jones recently returned from Paris, where she taught Graham Technique classes and choreographed a new work for the Graham for Europe organization. Founded in 2017 by Rafael Molina and headquartered in Paris, Graham for Europe seeks to promote and nurture the legacy of American modern dance pioneer Martha Graham throughout Europe.

Jones is a former member of the Martha Graham Dance Company (MGDC) and a régisseur for the Martha Graham Resource Center. She first met Molina at a conference when she presented her research on Graham’s lost 1935 solo, Imperial Gesture. Jones reimagined Imperial Gesture in 2013, and the MGDC subsequently performed it in Charlotte and New York City, adding it to the company repertory. Last summer, Molina invited Jones to Venice, Italy, where her Graham-inspired solo, Traces, was performed by current MGDC soloist Marzia Memoli.

For the Paris intensive, dancers gathered from all over the world to work with Jones.

“There were dancers from Gabon, Tunisia, Turkey, Germany, England, Scotland, and all over France,” Jones said. “They ranged in age from 16 to 40.” Also in the group was UNC Charlotte dance alumna Maria Borrowman, who graduated in May.

Jones collaborated with composer Michael Wall and developed new choreography with the dancers for a piece that they performed publicly on November 1.

“We were all energetically responding to current events” during the choreographic process, she said. “It was an ongoing conversation throughout the rehearsals.”

She plans to continue to work with Wall and hopes to set this new choreography on students at UNC Charlotte for the Spring Dance Concert next semester.

Jones was excited by the international commitment to Martha Graham, whose work she has studied, performed, taught, and researched for more than two decades.

“It was very empowering for me that there was a collective interest in the Graham technique, but also working with me as a contemporary choreographer,” she said. “I was amazed that the dancers flew to Paris for this experience.”