Purely Symbolic

Martha Graham, one of the most gifted of modern choreographers, has had a limited popular appeal. Part of the'fun for confirmed Graham cultists has been wrestling with the Freudian nuances in a surrealist Graham dance-drama. Spirited little pro-&-con arguments during intermission ("No, what she really means is. . . .") have usually been a standard feature of every Graham recital.

Last week she found herself virtually a popular success. She brought to Manhattan her Appalachian Spring, a pleasant, good-humored ballet with no hidden meaning at all. It was danced on a stark black-draped stage relieved only by the skeletal framework of a house. What was happening in this newest Graham dance-drama (to Aaron Copland's alternately gay and poignant Pulitzer prize score) was comprehensible even to the bored businessman: a bride (Graham) and her groom (Erick Hawkins) built their house in the clearing of a Pennsylvania forest; they had a baby; they entertained a band of Shakers (who shook away their sins in a frenzied religious ceremony).

No one was mystified for a moment. The talk at intermission was unanimous --all in praise of the Graham skill. But the quixotic Graham, explaining things to the press, could not resist fuzzing up her new ballet's simplicity with a few of the old nuances: "I used my grandmother's stories of the pioneer days ... to build the framework of a nation. Spring is purely symbolic of the springtime of the nation. That is why the set is so simple with no green leaves. . , ."

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