A tale of two Marthas.

NY She was named after Martha Graham, and now she's choreographed the Graham company's first commission under the leadership of Christine Dakin and Terese Capucilli. Martha Clarke is the reigning doyenne of American dance theater, a maker of painterly, dreamlike movement theater. Her new piece is inspired, she says, by themes from "the dark, strong, muscular" works of Spanish painter Francisco Goya--"war, cartoons of social commentary, superstition, prostitution, people's cunning and deception." Her choreographic process includes improvisation and playfulness. "We laugh," she says, calling herself "a soother and a coaxer in work." She's grown quite fond of the company's dancers: "I'm very touched by them. They're wonderful little birds eating a different kind of worm." See www.citycenter.org.