Above: from Paul Taylor’s ESPLANADE, photo by Steven Pisano
Wednesday November 5th, 2025 – The Paul Taylor Dance Company are back at Lincoln Center for a 3-week season; I’ll be going on three consecutive Wednesdays. This evening’s program looked short on paper but was stretched by an unnecessary second intermission.
On a day after we had our first glimmer of hope in many dreary months, the program opened with the rather desolate, unfathomable SCUDORAMA; this 1963 dancework is set to a score by Clarence Jackson. It is music of wide rhythmic variety, by turns eerie, clever, and vibrant. The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, under the baton of David LaMarche, gave a superb rendering of the score, which features some jarring whistle-blowing.
The setting, by Alex Katz, shows stylized dark clouds hovering in a toxic yellow sky. Seemingly homeless, people huddle under discarded blankets. A quintet of women – Jessica Ferretti, Emmy Wildermuth, Elizabeth Chapa, Lisa Borres Casey, and Gabrielle Barnes – have many comings and goings. Tall and alluring, Kenny Corrigan made an outstanding impression. The centerpiece of the work is a duet for Kristin Draucker and Devon Louis; Ms. Draucker’s solo, in a red gown, was stunningly danced, and she was vociferously applauded when she took her bow at the end of the ballet.
Paul Taylor’s TROILUS AND CRESSIDA (reduced vesion) uses music by Amilcare Ponchielli, whose LA GIOCONDA is one of my favorite operas. The Dance of the Hours became famous – and familiar to millions – via the Disney film FANTASIA. Paul Taylor has spoofed the classical nature of the ballet with a fanciful back-drop and trios of Cupids (Mlles. Draucker, Borres Casey, and Payton Primer) and invading Greek soldiers (Mr. Corrigan, Caleb Mansor, and Patrick Gamble) while Madelyn Ho and Alex Clayton are brilliant as the principals who cannot seem to do anything right. At one point, the danseur even loses his trousers.
Choreographer Robert Battle’s very brief TAKADEME dates from 1999; it is set to a score by Sheila Chandra which features rhythmic vocalizations of the Indian Kathak dance style. In a tour de force performance, Devon Louis captured all the facets of footwork and gesture that the solo calls for. Taking his bow to a cheering audience, the dancer summoned Mr. Battle to join him onstage.
Paul Taylor’s iconic masterpiece, ESPLANADE, closed the evening. St. Luke’s violinists Krista Bennion Feeney and Alex U Fortes beautifully played the Bach score, and the cast of nine – Mlles. Draucker, Borres Casey, Ferretti, Barnes, and Chapa joined by the ever-delightful Jada Pearman; and Mr. Clayton with his colleagues Lee Duveneck and John Harnage, revevelled in the Taylor choerography. The three duets were danced by Ms. Barnes with Mr. Duveneck, Ms. Borres Casey with Mr. Clayton, and Ms. Draucker with Mr. Harnage.
The lighting for ESPLANADE tonight seemed terribly “pinkish” and tended to wash out the dancers. And someone near us was loudly humming along – somewhat off-pitch – to the Largo.
As the Bach drew to its end, I was again thinking that I much prefer seeing Taylor at venues like Jacob’s Pillow (where I first discovered them back in the 1970s) and The Joyce. In the House of Mr. B, the dancers seem far away…and their personalities less distinctive. My companion – a dancer and choreographer – agreed with me, and suggested City Center as an alternative: a place which used to be the Taylor company’s Gotham home.
~ Oberon
Oberon's Glade 