For two years, internecine disputes have threatened to destroy the legacy of Martha Graham, as various people and entities have battled for survival, supremacy, and control over the works and institutions she created during her long career as a dancer and choreographer. As recently as this spring, it seemed possible that the dances she left behind might never be performed again legally, and that the eponymous center she established in 1948 might never recover from financial difficulties.
However, a court ruling last week returned some autonomy to the center and the school Graham established in 1956, and threw out most of the claims brought by Ron Protas, the sole executor of her estate.
Before Graham died in 1991, she rewrote her will to bequeath much of her property, including the "rights and interests in any dance works," to Protas, a young college dropout she had befriended. Within two years of Graham's death, Protas filed to legally trademark her name and the phrase "Martha Graham technique"; in 1998, he created the Martha Graham Trust as a repository to hold and license all the intellectual property he said he had inherited from Graham, and installed himself as its only trustee.
Shortly thereafter, relations between Protas and the boards of the center and the school soured, leading to efforts to remove him as artistic director. Donors reportedly disliked his management style, students and troupe members were frustrated by his apparent lack of dance knowledge, and the board had grown sufficiently tired of him to vote for his removal in March 2000.
Two months later, bogged down by financial problems, the center suspended operations when Protas served notice that it and the school had to stop using the Martha Graham name. He then filed suit accusing the center and school of trademark infringement.
In a 36-page ruling Thurs., Aug. 9, Federal District Court Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum rejected Protas' arguments. She not only found that Protas had "misled" the government when he applied for the trademarks on the Graham name, but also said his actions were "undermining" Graham's original intent and bluntly stated, "I found Protas not to be a credible witness." The ruling assigned the Graham name to the center and the school, and denied Protas' request for "an injunction to prevent [the school and center] from using the word 'technique' in conjunction with the name 'Martha Graham.'"
Following that decision, Francis Mason, board chair of the school and center, said that both institutions "will vigorously pursue our plans for the future, now free of the threat of these baseless claims."
The story will not end with Cedarbaum's ruling. A future trial will determine whether Protas has the exclusive right to the Graham dances, and whether he owes financial compensation to the school and center. Also, it was disclosed at the trial that New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has launched an investigation of Protas' conduct.