Ron Protas
Ronald Allen Protas 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.