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Taylor Season

Parisa Khobdeh with Sean Mahoney and Robert Kleinendorst in <I>Company B</I>.<br />© Paul B. Goode. (Click image for larger version)
Parisa Khobdeh with Sean Mahoney and Robert Kleinendorst in Company B. Photo by Paul B. Goode.

 

Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance is at the Koch through March 29. My review of two programs is here.

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Taylor’s Tales

Laura Halzack and Michael Trusnovec in Paul Taylor's "Beloved Renegade," from 2009. Photo by Paul B Goode.
Laura Halzack and Michael Trusnovec in Paul Taylor’s “Beloved Renegade,” from 2009. Photo by Paul B Goode.

On March 13, I saw a Paul Taylor program consisting of: Cascade, To Make Crops Grow, and Beloved Renegade. Here is my review for DanceTabs.

And a short excerpt:

“This year’s premières are like a negative image of what came before. Perpetual Dawn, which opened last week, is a happy couples dance, set to generically upbeat music by the German baroque composer, Johann David Heinichen. Lovers frolic, embrace, chase after each another in a bucolic setting. Even the lone single girl (Michelle Fleet) eventually finds a man. Then there is To Make Crops Grow, which I saw for the first time last night. It turns out to be a rather creepy fable about society’s willingness to sacrifice one of its own to satisfy some sort of higher law – order, convention?”

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Paul Taylor, Back at Lincoln Center

Aileen Roehl and Amy Young in Paul Taylor's "Junction." Photo by Paul B Goode.
Aileen Roehl and Amy Young in Paul Taylor’s “Junction.” Photo by Paul B Goode.

The Paul Taylor Dance Company opened its second season at Lincoln Center with a gala performance. For once it wasn’t the usual “best-of” compilation, but a typically eccentric Paul Taylor quadruple bill. You can read my review here.

And here is a short excerpt:

“The surprise of the evening (for me) was the closer, Offenbach Overtures (1995). The last time I saw this dance, several years back, it struck me as forced and cartoonish. This time it won me over completely. Has it changed or have I? Set to appealing Offenbach polkas and waltzes and costumed (by Loquasto) in simplified versions of soldier uniforms (including mustaches) and chorine outfits straight out of Toulouse Lautrec (all red), the piece pokes fun at ballet, at puffed-up nineteenth-century European conventions, at operetta, at heterosexual coupling.”