Exploring Errand into the Maze

The mother of modern dance

A pioneering figure in the world of dance and named by TIME magazine as the “Dancer of the Century”, Martha Graham remains a titan of the art form.

A dancer, as well as a teacher and choreographer, she created a distinctive movement style, known as Graham technique. Rooted in the principle of ‘contraction and release’, this reshaped the landscape of dance and continues to be followed and taught around the world today.

During her prolific choreographic career, Graham’s created 181 works attracting some of classical ballet’s most famous performers including Margot Fonteyn, Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. She famously taught actors such as Bette Davis, Madonna, Liza Minnelli and Kirk Douglas whilst working at The Neighbourhood Playhouse and went on to influence many other great artistic voices including Merce Cunningham, Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp.

Her legacy of excellence continues with the company she founded – the Martha Graham Dance Company, which celebrates its centenary this season!

Find out more about Martha Graham’s impact here.

Journeying into the maze

Martha Graham’s Errand into the Maze premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York in 1947.

Choreographed as a duet for Graham to dance herself with Mark Ryder, this 15-minute ballet is one of her most celebrated works. The title comes from the opening lines of Dance Piece, a poem dedicated to Graham by Ben Belitt, whom she met while teaching at Bennington College in Vermont:

    The errand into the maze,

    Emblem, the heel’s blow upon space,

    Speak of the need and order the dancer’s will.

    But the dance is still.

Man, myth and legend: The influence of Greek mythology

Graham’s choreography often reframed classical stories and situations, retelling them from the perspective of a woman rather than the traditional male hero.

Graham created 18 complete works inspired by Greek myths and legends. Errand into the Maze was one of these. The ballet is based on the story of Theseus, who enters an inescapable maze to fight with the Minotaur – a half-man, half-bull creature. Ariadne, daughter of King Minos of Crete, aids Theseus by giving him a thread to mark his path, allowing him to retrace his steps after slaying the creature.

Graham’s work is clearly inspired by the myth yet carves its own path in both story and character. The protagonist, called ‘the Woman’, goes on a journey influenced by the myth of Theseus and takes clear inspiration from the character of Ariadne. But she is very much a standalone concept to them both in this work.  She appears to be moving through the labyrinth of her own fears, confronting a strange, Minotaur-like being, the ‘Creature of Fear’, who is the embodiment of those fears.

The Ariadne-like figure of ‘the Woman’ appears lost in the labyrinth of her own fears, confronting a strange, Minotaur-like being, the ‘Creature of Fear’, who is the embodiment of those fears.

The audience witnesses the Woman’s emotional journey, as she seeks to overcome the spectre of fear, or as the original performance programme described it: “an errand into the maze of the heart’s darkness in order to face and do battle with the Creature of Fear.”

A classic example of how Graham drew inspiration from Greek tragedy, this ballet allows her to explore human nature by placing mythical heroes into extreme situations – facing dilemmas, enduring suffering and ultimately emerging triumphant.

Nothing is more revealing than movement

Martha Graham

Following the thread: Isamu Noguchi’s designs

During the 1940s and 1950s, Graham worked with sculptor Isamu Noguchi to produce a number of sets and costumes, with the pair collaborating on 22 of her works.

Errand into the Maze offers a classic example of Noguchi’s minimalist and abstract set design – never just decorative but designed to interplay with the choreography and enhance the storytelling of the piece.

A long, looping rope winds across the stage. Perhaps it is a symbol of Ariadne’s thread from the original myth, or a pathway through the labyrinth of the Woman’s emotions.

Each dancer sets out their rope onstage before the curtain goes up, as a personal homage to the piece and the way they have rehearsed.

In the production, the thread leads to an upright wooden sculpture shaped like a doorway. This stark, V-shaped frame is interpreted by some as a tree but described by Graham as “the pelvic bone”. It serves as both the entrance to the maze, where the woman’s insecurities and fears come to life, and as the symbolic threshold she passes through once, she has conquered them.

Masha Maddux, former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Company and currently staging Errand into the Maze says:

“Once the dancer makes the choice to go through this opening, she makes a decision to go through this journey of battling her fears and only at the end when she emerges, she’s a brand-new woman. It’s not that she wasn’t strong to begin with, it’s that there’s a new sense of self – and that triumph is so changing to her.”

Technically, Errand into the Maze’s choreography demands both physical power and emotional precision. The woman wears a costume of Graham’s own design: a long, clinging white dress marked by a black zigzag down the front, mirroring the looping path of Noguchi’s rope from the set.

She must move through rapid transitions – jubilance to despair, fear to triumph – her entire body shuddering as if electrified by apprehension, anguish, and, ultimately, victory.

Creating the Creature of Fear

The Creature of Fear is one of the most demanding male roles in the Graham repertoire. The movement is limited by a bone-like staff carried across the shoulders and binding the dancer’s arms in a fixed position above his head.

This bone might suggest self-imposed limitation or inhibition, and with his arms immobilised, the dancer must execute complex movements using only his torso.

The Creature also wears a headdress featuring bull horns. A key part of this is that it also fits into the dancer’s mouth – they have to physically bite onto it during the performance to keep it in place.

For Masha Maddux, the need to bite onto the headdress helps in the development of the character:

“This adds to the honesty and the dramatic effect for the male dancer because it is such difficult movement and you add something that really makes you breathe differently so that it almost intensifies the character.”

In the original Noguchi costume, the headdress masked the dancer’s face entirely while later productions replaced this with a golden horned headdress.

A sense of foreboding: Menotti’s score

The 15-minute score by Gian Carlo Menotti is one of many significant musical works commissioned by Graham.

Although this was their first collaboration, Menotti was already an acclaimed composer for the stage.

As for many of Graham’s ballets, the music was written for a chamber orchestra. Menotti’s electrifying score serves as a taut, nervous undercurrent, heightening the tension embedded in the choreography and mirroring the unusual shapes and dynamics of Graham’s movement style.

The changing face of Errand into the Maze

In 2012, Hurricane Sandy flooded the Martha Graham Dance Center in New York for more than a week, destroying thousands of original costumes, sets, and production materials. Among the losses were Graham’s own costume designs and Isamu Noguchi’s original set for Errand into the Maze. Despite this, the Martha Graham Dance Company continued to perform the ballet, adapting it for the stage without its original visual elements.

In our production of Errand into the Maze we perform the work using recreations of the original sets and costumes, on loan from the Martha Graham Dance Company.

Rarely performed in the UK, you can watch Martha Graham’s Errand Into the Maze as part of R:Evolution, our mixed programme at Sadler’s Wells, from 1-11 October.