Dance Review: Paul Taylor is Modern Dance!

The Paul Taylor company danced a flawless, thought provoking, and powerful show Sunday afternoon at New York’s City Center.  The company was able to nail three different pieces of contrasting themes and styles like no other.   This show was so fantastic that I could hardly keep from stopping myself from commenting out loud after each and every piece.  I was like, “YES, Dance Ya’ll . . . This is modern dance for real!”  I loved it.  The formations, the pattern making was so ingenious that you never knew who was coming or going or it how it happened . . . you just new that it happened like “magic.”  The thing that impressed me most about this modern dance master, King of formations, and the New York Mayor of modern dance, Mr. Paul Taylor, is that he clearly knows what his choreographic style is and what he wants to say, and does it well.

First up on the program was The Sorcerer’s Sofa, a very fun, comic, yet classically “Paul Taylor” piece.  Set to the music, "Sorcerer’s Apprentice," by Paul Dukas, (also known by some of our more younger iDANZ members as Mickey Mouse’s Fantasia musical score) proved to be an excellent way to start the evening.  With the delightfully colorful costumes and wonderful stage lighting, this athletic story ballet soared –skipping and barrel turning right into the audience’s hearts.
 

The second piece, Changes, was THE BOMB or should I say . . . “soooo groovy.”  It was a great interpretation of the sixties as the dancers showed off their acting skills in addition to their athleticism.  I loved how the opening sequence was set at a party, smoking weed in sixties fashion and fun while referencing the cultural revolution of peace and love over the social stigmas of war.  Never leaving any little detail unattended, I appreciated how Taylor used movement combinations from the opening, but as the piece progressed, had the dancers repeat the same elements high as a kite.  Now that’s the way a choreographer should use theme and motif!

Annmaria Mazzini was killin’ it in Changes, and totally stood out nailing her role!  “You better hit it, girl,”  . . . I wanted to scream that from my seat!  And, Paul Taylor’s use of air was the shiz . . . how he plays with air in this piece is so interesting, definitely a characteristic of his style that makes makes him so legendary.  Moreover, the musicality used in this piece was outstanding; Taylor created just the right amount of movement to hit all the right accents in a unique way.  What I also liked about Paul Taylor and his choreography in this piece, was how he was able to be a master of his own style yet mix it in to whatever the theme and style of the appropriate period.  He does this especially with his story ballets that he creates; and that, my iDANZ friends, is another characteristic that makes Taylor so great.    

The last piece, Promethean Fire, was a breathtaking swirl of bodies resembling the formations and intricacies of synchronized swimming.  So flawlessly in synch, this company is so amazingly good at moving together that they probably even defy gravity together soaring through the air as one and landing effortlessly.  Conquering the air in sync is more difficult than mastering movements simultaneously as one.   Once again, Paul Taylor, King of formations, brilliantly put together a perfect piece of mathematical wizardry for the eyes, that even I, as a dancer, had difficulty trying to figure out where the dancers were coming from and what their pattern of movement was.  I was saying to myself, “How the heck were they getting into those formations?”   They would run around, (from where, I don’t know for I would never know how they got on stage in the first place), do a fierce jump combination, kill it, and recycle the formation.  I was like, “What? . . . Didn’t I just see that girl?  Wait, how she get back into that formation? . . . What is he using, clones?”  When it comes to formations, Paul Taylor is genius.  Study and take note, iDANZers!

All in all,  the concert was really incredible.   The production value was great, backdrops were beautiful, and the costumes were right on point and beautifully crafted.  The show was well performed as well; and from my side-angle vantage point, the dancers danced all the way off the stage.   I never once saw them heaving in the wings (you would think with all that running and leaping,  . . . but no, never), and, you never once saw a dancer break from character, or anything out of place for that matter.  The dancers were in top form, and, though individuals, always moved as one.  They moved so perfect together, one would have thought they all had been dancing together since age two.  Paul Taylor could not have assembled a more perfect group of dancers together.

Paul Taylor Dance Company is modern dance, the epitome, plain and simple; and, this concert particularly contained a wonderful, classically-Taylor program of athletic style and graceful technique molded to create stories that borrow the audience’s imagination for a while.   Bravo . . .

O’kay, that’s it, I’m going to Paul Taylor’s class TOMORROW . . . and only $13 too?  at 11:30am?  I’m there.  Get it!

Top Left:  “Changes,” Photography by Tom Caravaglia
Mid Right:  “Changes,” Photography by Tom Caravaglia
Bottom Left:  “Promethean Fire,” Photography by Lois Greenfield

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by JoiLynn
Editorial Contributions by Candice Michelle Franklin
Performance:  Paul Taylor Dance Company
Choreography:  Paul Taylor
Venue: City Center, New York City
Date: Sunday, March 8th, 2009
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