Ron Protas is the former Associate Director of the

Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance is located in New York City and is the headquarters to the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and the Martha Graham Dance Company, which is the oldest continually performing dance company in the ...

and heir of

modern dance Modern dance is a broad genre of western concert or theatrical dance which included dance styles such as ballet, folk, ethnic, religious, and social dancing; and primarily arose out of Europe and the United States in the late 19th and early 20th ...

choreographer Martha Graham. Agnes de Mille writes in ''Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham'' that in the late 1960s Protas, who had been a law student at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, became introduced to the Martha Graham Dance Company. De Mille writes that Protas was not well liked by company members, as he was not a dancer and had no reason to be involved with the company. Initially, Graham did not like Protas. But when Graham's health began to fail, as a result of her

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...

and depression over having to retire from her performing career, Protas stepped in and nursed Graham back to health. De Mille writes that over the next several years the influence of Protas grew, eventually he and Graham restructured the company entirely. According to de Mille, Protas soon embarked on a campaign to copyright the Martha Graham Dance Technique: "Now, under the guidance of Ron Protas, there was an attempt to charge royalties for all usage, not only of composed dances, but of actual technique: an impossible objective." Eventually, Protas became the second most powerful person in the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, second only to the founder herself. In her autobiography ''Blood Memory'' Martha Graham writes that she trained Protas in her dance technique and that he will be her heir upon her death. Shortly after the death of Martha Graham, Mr. Protas sued the

Martha Graham Dance Company The Martha Graham Dance Company, founded in 1926, is known for being the oldest American dance company. Founded by Martha Graham as a contemporary dance company, it continued to perform pieces, revive classics, and train dancers even after Graham's ...

, forbidding them from performing Martha Graham's choreography. Only after a lengthy and multimillion-dollar legal battle were the rights to the choreographic works restored the Martha Graham Dance Company.

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

: The Martha Graham Dance Company returns to New York: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/02/17/030217crda_dancing

Notes

External links

Village Voice: "Maelstrom at Martha's"

{{DEFAULTSORT:Protas, Ron Modern dance Martha Graham Living people American arts administrators Year of birth missing (living people)

See also

Notes

External links