Graham Dance holds video contest

This year, news headlines will turn into dance – on the Internet.

The Martha Graham Dance Company is launching a global competition challenging anyone who’s cyber-savvy to transform the late choreographer’s 1958 masterpiece “Clytemnestra” into an online video.

The hitch: picking a “celebrity” from Clytemnestra’s mythical Greek life – and creating a four-minute scene linked to today’s world.

The winning footage in “The Clytemnestra ReMash Challenge” will premiere during the company’s New York season in May.

Five videos are posted on a special Web site, www. marthagrahamprojects.com, depicting five characters from “Clytemestra,” which the company is performing in a current revival.

Participants are told “to create a modern twist on those ancient characters through current pop culture, news, personalities or events.”

Even today’s news would be hard-pressed to match the twisted story of “Clytemnestra,” a meditation on insanity, vengeance and the murder of a mother based on an ancient Greek tale as recounted by Aeschylus.

A married woman runs off with her lover, triggering an international affair: the Trojan War. For revenge, her husband offers their daughter to be sacrificed. When he returns from a military victory that includes raping and pillaging, he brings along an enslaved concubine.

The multimedia contest opens Sunday and runs through March 31.

A panel of experts in dance and media will select the winning video clip, which comes with $500 and the world premiere; second and third prizes are awarded $250 each and also will be showcased.