Paul Taylor 2003-04 Season (2nd half)

Diana · **Posted:** Tue Mar 23, 2004 8:23 am

From the San Jose Mercury News,

Quote:

TAYLOR-MADE DANCE

WITH 50-STATE TOUR IMMINENT, CHOREOGRAPHER ISN'T RESTING AFTER 50 YEARS OF EMINENCE

By Anita Amirrezvani

Mercury News

At 73, Paul Taylor is one of the leading lights of modern dance.

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Diana · **Posted:** Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:23 am

From the San Francisco Bay Guardian,

Quote:

Paul Taylor Dance Company
March 24-April 4, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater

Rita Felciano

CAN EXCELLENT DANCERS save mediocre choreography?

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corrival · **Posted:** Wed Mar 24, 2004 11:31 am

A somewhat misleading opening statement! Thank goodness the writer did not mean Paul Taylor had mediocre choreopgraphy.

Azlan this is your chance to see Promethean Fire!

Azlan · **Posted:** Thu Mar 25, 2004 1:21 pm

Yes, this is my chance, isn't it? But NDT gets priority this week.

Here however is a review from opening night:

Quote:

Celebrating 50 fiery years

EVER-INVENTIVE PAUL TAYLOR CONVEYS VARIED MOODS IN PROGRAM

By Anita Amirrezvani, San Jose Mercury News

Few choreographers can work for as long or as hard as Paul Taylor without falling into a rut. <a href=http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/8274731.htm target=_blank>more</a>

Diana · **Posted:** Fri Mar 26, 2004 10:04 am

From the San Francisco Chronicle,

Quote:

Brave new dance from Paul Taylor

Michael Wade Simpson, Special to The Chronicle

Paul Taylor, never one to shy away from dark or difficult subject matters, has placed his latest dance just outside the gates of hell. "Dante Variations," a world premiere offered Wednesday night at the outset of the 50th anniversary season of his globe-trotting modern dance company, is about "the nearly soulless whose lives concluded neither blame nor praise."

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Diana · **Posted:** Tue Mar 30, 2004 7:25 am

From the San Francisco Chronicle,

Quote:

New 'Puppetier,' plus old classics show breadth of Taylor's genius

Rachel Howard, Special to The Chronicle

You could hold a monthlong festival and still not come close to capturing the many guises of Paul Taylor, whose well-loved company started a 50-state 50th anniversary tour at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts last week with a world premiere in the first program.

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Azlan · **Posted:** Wed Mar 31, 2004 11:13 pm

Hmm... Is it just me or has the dancing in this company been off its mark for the last three seasons? I do have very high expectations of PTDC and I expect smouldering sexuality, for example, in "Piazzola Caldera." Instead it seems more like a collection of jocks and tomboys with strength, athleticism and speed but lacking in grace and ending up looking almost goofy on stage.

Or am I being too harsh? Or perhaps the dancers are exhausted from dancing so much? Come to think of it, a former dancer made a comment to me about a couple years ago that the company seemed to be walking through their steps.

corrival · **Posted:** Thu Apr 01, 2004 6:03 am

It must be just a few particular performances, rather than in general, that PTDC seem to be "just walking through".

The performance I saw last year was so intense and emotional it ranks as one of the most outstanding performances I've ever seen. I still get a lump in my throat thinking about it even now!

Azlan · **Posted:** Thu Apr 01, 2004 8:17 am

Admittedly, all the performances I've seen in the last few years were in the second or final week of a long run.

trina · **Posted:** Thu Apr 01, 2004 9:40 am

I am so excited about this 50 state tour!! What a celebration. Hopefully, we here in Seattle will get to see such favorites as "Sunset", "Sacre du Printemps" and "Aureole". However, the sticky thing is that I associate so many of the key dancing roles with specific dancers. For example, I just can't imagine the male "soldier" duet in "Sunset" with anyone other than David Parsons and Chris Gillis, on whom the parts were created, I believe. Sigh. Loking forward to this, and the new works as well!!

<small>[ 01 April 2004, 10:41 AM: Message edited by: trina ]</small>

Azlan · **Posted:** Thu Apr 01, 2004 11:09 pm

Trina, if you feel so emotionally about "Sunset," I recommend continue imagining it instead of seeing the current set of dancers perform it -- they were rather shaky in the balancing parts and not lyrical enough to convey the romantic nostalgia of the work.

However, the strength and the raw floor-pounding energy of the company were spellbinding in drawing out the primitive beauty of the 1975 "Runes," a work that falls in the Paul Taylor's category of "ugly works." I think this is the area in which these highly earthbound dancers excel in, when they are not being forced into the balletic language of the "pretty works," for they were equally enthralling in "Dante Variations," a world premiere commissioned for San Francisco Performances.

"Dante" isn't necessarily a magnificent work but it is heartening to see Taylor returning somewhat to his choreographic beginnings, in challenging authority as well as audiences, for the commission in San Francisco instead of creating yet another popular and accessible work.

Belinda · **Joined:** Tue Oct 24, 2000 11:01 pm **Posts:** 269

Wow, I wonder if they were having a bad night when you saw Sunset? I didn't notice any shakiness the night I saw it and I thought the men were very touching. But then Azlan can have an unforgivingly sharp eye!

Azlan · **Posted:** Fri Apr 02, 2004 11:52 pm

Unforgivingly sharp eye? Um, maybe it's my old evil eye up to its tricks again. I have been accused more than once of causing mayhem by merely fixing a glare on the victim, er, I mean person.

But seriously, a longtime follower of the company noted tonight that some of us may have trouble watching this company because we are used to seeing different generations of dancers performing our favorite works and it is difficult for us to transcribe the works to dancers with different aesthetics. That may be true. While I still longed to see Rachel Berman, for example, in "Mercuric Tidings" and even though I generally enjoyed the overall quality of the company in this work tonight, there were a couple or so of the dancers that just didn't move as lyrically as the others.

You're right about "Promethean Fire," Corrival. There is certainly passionate beauty in this work. But I still very much prefer the ritualistic "Runes" and the pounding "Dante Variations."

I also enjoyed Taylor's ironic wit in "Le Grand Puppetier," with its theme of Napoleonic complex, corruption of power, liberation, and revenge cleverly conveyed through comedy.

What I would give to see an evening of all the early audience-challenging works that earned Taylor the moniker of enfant terrible.

<small>[ 03 April 2004, 12:54 AM: Message edited by: Azlan ]</small>

corrival · **Posted:** Mon Apr 05, 2004 6:31 am

From an article in the Washington Post about various shows in New York:

By Terry Teachout
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, April 4, 2004; Page N04 NEW YORK

Quote:

Paul Taylor is the opposite of Mehldau, a truly great artist who doesn't take himself seriously, only his craft. His signal achievement has been to siphon the angst out of modern dance, telling terrible truths with the lightest of touches, and when everything works -- as it usually does -- the results are wondrous to behold. Once in a while, though, Taylor misses the target, as he did this season at City Center with his newest dance, "Le Grand Puppetier," in which he translates "Petrushka" into a quasi-political myth accompanied by a player-piano version of Stravinsky's score (an ingenious touch). The concept was sound enough, but the tension seemed to me a bit too low, at least at first glance. The results were no more than blandly agreeable, though beautifully danced by the Paul Taylor Dance Company, which looks better than ever this season. Perhaps a second viewing will change my mind about "Le Grand Puppetier" -- the more you see Taylor's dances, the more you see in them -- but I confess to having been far more excited by revivals of "Runes," "Mercuric Tidings" and "Sunset" (whose lovely decor is by Alex Katz), three important works from the '70s and '80s that hadn't been seen in New York for a number of years. In any case, Taylor has nothing to prove, to me or anyone else. When you're the world's greatest living dancemaker, you get to nod from time to time.

Washington Post

Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Sat Apr 10, 2004 1:18 am

Paul Taylor
By Laura Shapiro for New York Metro

Paul Taylor has been earning it for 50 years now, which is why his audience lovingly forgives him when, once in a while, he doles out utter nonsense. I don’t mean the truly great nonsense, like Dreamgirls; I mean the dances in which you can almost hear Taylor wondering Why am I still doing this? as he choreographs.

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Paul Taylor 2003-04 Season (2nd half)

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