Dance: Martha Graham Dance Company at the Joyce

How do you turn 97 and maintain your youth and vigor? For the Martha Graham Dance Company (MGDC), it’s no sweat. Unless you count the sweat pouring off the bodies of her young, talented, hyperkinetic troupe.

This youthful energy was most pronounced in “Cave,” the final piece in tonight’s show at the Joyce. It emerged out of an idea brought to the Graham Company by the international dance star Danil Simkin. Danil was interested in borrowing from the techno club scene and integrating choreographed movement into a Rave style event. The choreographer of the piece was Hofesh Shechter, and the powerful, swirling movement on stage had the mostly youthful audience clapping, cheering and generally whooping it up from the get-go.

Perhaps classical Graham is more your thing? “Embattled Garden,” (1958) with a set that was designed by Noguchi, tells the tale of Adam (Lloyd Knight) and Eve (Xin Ting) tempted by the serpent (the extraordinarily nimble Lorenzo Pagano) and the evil Lilith (Leslie Andrea Williams). I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of dancers I’ve seen that are as good as Pagano. One of them is Baryshnikov, mid-1970s.

These two pieces, along with a third, the striking “Cortège” (2022), demonstrate that 1) the classics never lose their luster, 2) it’s more important than ever to stay current, and 3) in the case of MGDC, 97 is the new 27. Can’t wait to see what they’re like at 98.