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Ron Protas

Field	Value
name	Ron Protas
birth_name	Ronald Allen Protas
birth_date
birth_place	New York City, U.S.
death_date
death_place	New York City, U.S.
occupation
known_for	Association with Martha Graham
education	New York University

Ronald Allen Protas (September 2, 1941 – October 15, 2025) was an associate director of the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance and heir of modern dance choreographer Martha Graham, his friend of twenty-odd years. In her will, she left him the rights to her dances. Though not a dancer, he took over the Martha Graham Dance Company until its board dismissed him, leading to an extended legal battle over the ownership of Graham's work which was eventually resolved in the company's favor.

Background

Ronald Allen Protas was born in Manhattan, New York, on September 2, 1941, and was brought up in Brooklyn, where he was educated Erasmus Hall High School. He subsequently attended New York University.

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, 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 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.

Legal battle

In her autobiography Blood Memory Martha Graham writes that she trained Protas in her dance technique and named him as heir upon her death, intending to will him the rights to all of her dances. Protas was never trusted by many within Graham's company.

Later life and death

After losing in court, Protas struggled financially and sold many of the valuables that Graham had also bequeathed him. The Graham Center later made overtures to license the two of Graham's works that Protas retained the rights to, but he refused. He died from heart disease at his residence in Manhattan on October 15, 2025, at the age of 84.

Notes

References

Gabriel, Trip. (January 8, 2026). "Ron Protas, Polarizing Keeper of Martha Graham’s Legacy, Dies at 84". [[The New York Times]].
"Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham" by Agnes de Mille ({{ISBN. 0-679-74176-3): Page 410
Blood Memory" by Martha Graham ({{ISBN. 0-385-26503-4)

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1941-births 2025-deaths modern-dance martha-graham american-arts-administrators erasmus-hall-high-school-alumni new-york-university-alumni

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