Of thee I dance: America’s enduring ‘Spring’ fling

By Jane Norris

Published: May 15, 2008

When the Martha Graham Dance Company performs Tuesday at the Paramount Theater, its central work won’t need a single line of dialogue to speak volumes.

“Appalachian Spring’’ follows a young pioneer woman as she starts a new life as a farm wife in a neighborly community. A young nation seems to be growing by the leaps and bounds that work their way into Graham’s choreography.

No surprise, then, that the can-do energy of the piece couldn’t have come along at a better time to lift spirits in a country weary of World War II — and continues to resonate with today’s audiences with its message that the future can be a thrilling frontier rather than something to be feared.

“It really does speak to people,’’ said LaRue Allen, executive director of the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, the dance company’s home. “It reflects so much of what we really hold dear in this country.

“I think it comes back whenever we have a conflict that puts people in harm’s way.’’

Graham created “Appalachian Spring’’ in 1944, starting with a commission from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation to craft a new dance to premiere at the Library of Congress. The title came from a Hart Crane poem, and the celebratory American experience that the dance became united three 20th-century innovators.

Sculptor Isamu Noguchi, who collaborated with Graham for three decades, created the set. Composer Aaron Copland penned the music, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945, with an ear toward expressing springtime and youthful enthusiasm.

A memorable portion of it features the Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts’’ and variations. Time after time, television programs turn to the piece when it’s time to identify something with an intrinsically American nature.

Graham brought to the work a revolutionary approach to dance technique that changed the way people viewed contemporary dance and the way dancers undertook it. She created a new physical vocabulary that gave dancers and choreographers tools for expressing complex ideas through movement.

In “Appalachian Spring,’’ she drew on elements that reminded people of nostalgic Americana, such as square dance steps and turns.

The powerful work “delighted people and gave them a great deal of hope,’’ Allen said, adding that Graham and Copland “saw it as part of the war effort.

“They wanted to highlight the optimism’’ of America, Allen said. “That was their gift to the country.’’

Also on the program will be “Cave of the Heart,’’ which retells the story of Medea and Jason, and “Diversion of Angels,’’ which Graham once described as being about three aspects of love — mature, erotic and adolescent.

In “Diversion of Angels,’’ Graham created the Girl in Red character to express the influence of modern artist Wassily Kandinsky.

Allen said that “Appalachian Spring’’ is received enthusiastically by audiences. Folks who remember the work from the 1940s are renewing their acquaintance with it, while younger audience members are thrilled to discover it.

“We have had tremendous renewed interest in the Martha Graham technique,’’ she said.

Dancers who’d like to learn more about Graham’s dance technique can make reservations to attend a master class with the company the night before, at 7 p.m. Monday at Balletschool at 2409 Ivy Road. Darrell Rose will provide the percussion music for the master class. Tickets for Tuesday’s performance are $74.50, $64.50, $59.50 and $44.50. http://www.thepara

mount.net or call 979-1333.