Dance Review - Paul Taylor Dance Company

I've been getting into the birthday-groove and picking up a few tickets to help me celebrate my upcoming personal holiday.  I went onto TDF the other day and picked up a ticket to see the Paul Taylor Dance Company - when I saw that last night's performance included their "Esplanade," I knew this was one thing I needed to see right about now. Paul Taylor Dance Company generally brings me happiness and "Esplanade" ratchets up the joy.

My seat was excellent, just off-center in the fifteenth row of the orchestra.  The sightlines were wonderful and I was close enough to hear the performers breathe, but far enough away to be able to see the patterns of the choreography.  It was a splendid seat, except for the fact that my seat neighbor slept through all three pieces, with loud snoring.  I thought that after he missed the first piece completely (by being asleep), that he'd leave at intermission, but no.  He kept coming back. And kept snoring.  Sigh.  I almost asked him about it, but I thought that might be rude.  So I kept my question, and my wake-up-sir-elbow, to myself.

photo credit: Paul B Goode

The first piece of the evening was one I'd heard about, but had never seen: "Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rehearsal)."  I guess this is my year for seeing controversial ballets that Nijinsky made or inspired.  This piece was fascinating - having seen "Afternoon of the Faun" earlier this year made me recognize a few of the choreographic conceits of the piece as homage to Nijinsky.  There was so much stylized movement, angular and almost two-dimensional. The costumes were beige/gray, black and white (with splashes of red), so it was almost like seeing a black and white film, very old and unfamiliar.  There were vignettes, with the ballet company rehearsing, then with a single mother and her child, the child's kidnappers, a crook and his mistress, and much more.  There was a lot going on, both to see and hear from Stravinsky's score (here adapted for two pianos instead of an entire orchestra).  There's humor and menace, sharp quickness and quiet languor.  The last solo by the single mother was full of pain and despair.  The piece was almost too much to take in at one sitting - even though it was really odd, I definitely need to see it again.

photo credit: Andrea Mohin

After a very long intermission, then was "Summerspace," choreographed by Merce Cunningham in 1958 and here danced by the Lyon Opera Ballet. This was another odd, angular yet flowing piece.  The backdrop/set piece looked like a cross between a Monet painting, a Jackson Pollock and a Seurat. It was quite airy and lovely, and the costumes matched the airiness.  The piece itself combined airy jumps with sharp twisting bodies, that are moving forward one way, yet seem to be looking behind them in another.  There were lots of outstretched arms, used both as balance and as movement-propellers, and also a lot of wonderful balances that didn't quite seem human to me.  How bodies can move through space that way and balance so easily is amazing.  The music was a bit repetitive for me, it was mostly quiet single notes, played on a piano, with some plinking of the wires in the top of the piano for effect.  But the music was gentle and quiet, so sometimes that got to be a little bit uninteresting, but I was always arrested by what the bodies were doing on stage. The six dancers were rather otherworldly, but yet still recognizably human.  I enjoyed this piece very much.

photo credit: Andrea Mohin (not the cast I saw)

I endured another long intermission, then settled in for the piece I especially wanted to see: "Esplanade."  It is so fast and joyful, with real tenderness and rueful resignation in parts.  It's danced to Bach concertos, which were just gloriously played by the Orchestra of St. Luke's. There's not a lot of dance 'choreography', per se, but there is forward action, movement, flight and exhilaration.  To watch the dancers literally run across the stage and throw themselves into each other's arms, with joy and abandon, is thrilling and the joy is impossible to resist.  I just sit there with a smile on my face and tears in my eyes at the beauty of "Esplanade."  I think I need to make seeing it a yearly tradition.  In these times of feeling unable to find the joy, seeing it in art/dance/theater/music/whatever is completely and totally necessary.  Coming up, more pre-birthday fun... :)