The Paul Taylor Dance Company graced the stage of the Duncan Theatre on Friday night, presenting three works from one of the nation’s best and most prolific choreographer. Fortunately for us, the company was able to fill in for the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, which was unable to make it here for the Duncan Theatre’s 25th anniversary season.
Paul Taylor (b. 1930) has choreographed over 130 dances in his career and is recognized the world over for a collection of works that run the gamut. Taylor has explored a vast array of themes and topics in his choreography. Some are funny, some are controversial, but all are chock-filled with original and highly physical movement that is still a clearly recognizable vocabulary. He is often described as “the last living member of the pantheon that is responsible for the creation of modern dance in America,” and remains one of the most creative and important choreographers today.
The first dance performed this evening was Brandenburgs, choreographed in 1988 to three movements of two of the Brandenburg Concertos of J.S. Bach. This ensemble work highlighted the always evident musicality of Taylor’s dances as well as his trademark athletic movement style. A quintet of men was the framing energy of the work, which introduced three female soloists in a whirl of classic Taylor movement – strong, shaped arms held with quiet elegance over an endless trail of quick footwork.
Eran Bugge was a standout with her dynamic movement initiation and sheer joy of movement. The somewhat ragged quintet of men with their raw energy and undefined lines was countered with clarity of soloist Michael Trusnovec, whose completely different but still very masculine persona created a magnetic aura onstage with gentle intensity. The heart of the dance was the beautiful quartet with Trusnovec and the three women, which evolved into three distinctive solos where each woman danced to the watching Trusnovec.
Laura Halzack was fun and lively in her solo with her very fast footwork. Bugge was flirtatious and engaging and Amy Young was elegant. Then, alone onstage, Trusnovec danced bare-chested under a spotlight. His natural physicality together with his sensual musicality made the movement so rich and intricate but at the same time so simple and natural. During the many ensemble sections, the same movement was continually repeated, perhaps too much, but its familiarity wove the piece together and defined the floor patterns as if they were being painted on the stage.
The following work, Arabesque, which was first performed in 1999, was set to music by Claude Debussy. On all three pieces in the program, Taylor worked with longtime collaborators costume designer Santo Loquasto and lighting designer Jennifer Tipton. In Arabesque, Loquasto’s mythical ivory costumes and Tipton’s gold-hued lights together with Taylor’s gestures and poses gave a divergent view into classical mythology’s nymphs and centaurs.
There was an unexpected nastiness and agitation in the choreography underlying the calmness that the music created. Many quick steps filled in between the notes. It was if we were seeing a hint of an unsightly side of some of the myths. The Syrinx, beautifully danced by Laura Halzack, vacillated from the elegant stature of a goddess to a tormented type of animal.
The theme of the unsightly side of human nature continued in the final work Piazzolla Caldera, which used the music of Argentina’s Astor Piazzolla. It has been one of Taylor’s most popular works since it was created in 1997. Literally translated it would mean a cauldron of Piazzola; a cauldron of tangos. The title alone is a strong image. Tipton achieved a stunning visual effect in her lighting design with its smoke-filled, red drenched stage with its dark undertones. The somewhat seedy mood was further enhanced by Loquasto’s costumes of flowered dresses and bared stocking tops for the women and undershirts and suspenders for the men.
It was a red-tinged sepia photograph of the underbelly of the nightlife surrounding tango clubs. The ambiguous sexual overtones were set immediately with the seven men and five women who pair off changing partners frequently. There were locked foreheads, locked legs and aggression in sexual pairing, some of it homoerotic. Taylor’s choreography didn’t lose us for a moment. All the dancers gave very strong performances.
Parisa Khobdeh was gripping as the woman who searched to have her desire fulfilled by a man but is rejected by them all. A little comic relief came with the drunken duet between Michael Apuzzo and Francisco Granciano, who took a side line and watched the elegant mover Halzack being partnered by the excellent Trusnovec. The two are beautifully matched in clarity as dancers and in intensity as performers.
The theme of sexual laxity returned as the two duets merge into a menage a quatre. The final ensemble section was rousing and filled with original movement. All this without a single real tango step in the choreography; a tango without a tango. That is what makes Piazzolla Caldera so original and truly resound. It is the work of a master exploring yet another world on his long and fruitful journey as a choreographer.
There will be several premieres at the company’s Lincoln Center performances in March, so we can be assured that Taylor, even at age 81, continues to create and to astonish.
The Paul Taylor Dance Company repeats this show tonight at 8 p.m. at the Duncan Theatre on the campus of Palm Beach State College in Lake Worth. Tickets are $37. Call 868-3309 or visit www.duncantheatre.org.