Graham Troupe Ends Operations

The Martha Graham Dance Company and its dance school will cease operations due to long-standing financial troubles that left the group with no funds to operate.

The company was named after its founder, Martha Graham, a pioneering dancer and choreographer who died at age 96 in 1991.

The 71-year-old dance company sold its primary asset — the New York building that housed its school and studios — early last year, in an effort to pay off debts and keep cash flowing.

But ultimately time ran out, according to the organization’s executive director, Marvin Preston, a management consultant hired 10 weeks ago to try to rescue the struggling group. “This is a situation where the company had operating losses for an extremely long period of time, and, in effect, got used to having those operating losses,” Mr. Preston said.

Each time the group had faced a financial crisis in the past, Mr. Preston said, Ms. Graham used the force of her personality to recruit a last-minute donor.

But after her death, he said, the company “lost the ability to have the star power, and the miracles ceased, but the spending patterns didn’t change.”

Mr. Preston said he hoped the group might be reborn in some form in the future, “but it is not likely to be real soon.”