Graham troupe to play Met in April

The Martha Graham Dance Company will make a return appearance at the Metropolitan Opera House beginning April 22. The troupe is filling in for the Paris Opera Ballet, which has canceled its New York and Washington appearances.

The Paris troupe decided not to come after the dancers protested the engagement of guest artists for the American dates. The Met visit was to have been of two-week duration.

The Graham season will include appearances by Rudolf Nureyev in "Clytemnestra ," "Ecuatorial," and "Appalachian Spring." Liza Minnelli will return for "The Own and the Pussycat," created for the company's 1978 Met debut season.

A new version of "Judith" will have its world premiere during this '80 season of Graham dance. The ballet, first seen in 1950, was one of Miss Graham's most celebrated solo works. Halston has designed the costumes for this new production complete with male (dancing) chorus, as well as for the first public performance of "Frescoes," created for and danced at the opening of the Temple of Dendur in the then-new Sackler wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.