Appalachian Spring (Martha Graham, 1944): an optional set work within the origins of American modern dance, its choreographic intention, structure, Graham technique, aural setting, physical setting and context.

What this dot point is asking

Appalachian Spring (Martha Graham, 1944) is one of the four optional set works for AQA A-Level Dance, studied within the area of study the origins of American modern dance 1900 to 1945. If your centre chooses it, you answer the Component 2 Section B essays on this work. You need secure knowledge of its choreographic intention, structure and characters, the Graham technique it uses, the aural and physical settings, and the context that produced it, and the skill to analyse and evaluate how meaning is made.

Context and choreographic intention

Graham's intention is to present an image of frontier America rooted in hope, optimism, simplicity, community and endurance, an American identity built on settlement and the land rather than European spectacle. The work belongs to the origins of American modern dance, the period in which Graham and her contemporaries rejected ballet's conventions to build a new, expressive, distinctly American art form. Made during the Second World War, its affirmation of a steadfast, hopeful community also carried contemporary resonance.

Structure and characters

The work is a single continuous piece, more episodic than a traditional narrative ballet: the action unfolds as a sequence of episodes around the wedding rather than a plotted story. Meaning is carried by symbolic characters:

• The Bride - youthful, hopeful, anticipating married life, moving between joy and apprehension.
• The Husbandman (Groom) - steady and grounded, representing the working man and the new home.
• The Pioneer Woman - an older, wise figure embodying experience, endurance and the continuity of the frontier community.
• The Revivalist preacher and his followers - bringing a note of religious fervour and warning, and the spiritual dimension of frontier life.

These figures present a community in which personal, domestic and spiritual life are intertwined, so the structure reads as a portrait of a society rather than an individual story.

Movement, aural and physical setting

The aural setting is Aaron Copland's commissioned score, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music and famously quotes and varies the Shaker melody Simple Gifts. Its plainness and spiritual dignity match the movement and reinforce the American frontier setting. The physical setting is Isamu Noguchi's minimal, sculptural design: a skeletal house frame, a section of fence and a rocking chair suggest the new home and the pioneer environment without literal realism. Period-inspired costumes reinforce the plain, practical world of the settlers. The restraint of the design leaves room for the symbolism Graham intended.