~ Author: Oberon
Above: Lee Duveneck in “Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh!” from Paul Taylor’s COMPANY B; photo by Ron Thiele.
Wednesday November 12th, 2025 – Tonight’s program for the Taylor Company’s Lincoln Center season featured only one Taylor work. The evening opened with two very short solos – one a re-imagining by Jody Sperling of a Loie Fuller solo, and the second a fleeting invention by Robert Battle. It felt like we’d only just gotten settled in when there was an intermission; Lauren Lovette’s SOLITAIRE was then presented, followed by another intermission, and finally Taylor’s iconic COMPANY B.
Ms. Sperling’s Vive La Loïe is visually stunnning and musically marvelous. The score, by Max Richter, offers two movements: the first an allegro moderato, the second an andante. Dancer Jessica Ferretti, posing on a raised platform, manipulates a massive amount of billowing white fabric, which seems lit from within. The dance is hypnotic; it requires a dancer with strength, control, and steadfastness. Ms. Ferretti has all of this…and more. She was simply mesmerizing to watch.
One of the Company’s newest members, Payton Primer (photo above by Hisae Aihara), is already making her mark with her technical security and striking stage presence. This evening, she appeared in Robert Battle’s tricky, quick-stepping solo, TAKADEME, which was vividly danced and perfectly timed to the crazy rhythmic patterns. The audience took Ms. Primer to their hearts.
Lauren Lovette’s SOLITAIRE is set to a score by Ernest Bloch (his Concerto Grosso #1) which my companion of the evening spoke highly of. After hearing his pre-performance remarks, I took a closer listen this evening and…he’s right: it’s terrific music. Ms. Lovette premiered this piece in 2022; at that time, I wasn’t really taken with it. In the interim, she seems to have made some changes that are marked improvements. And, with the music as my focus, the choreography felt more flowing and natural.
The central role in SOLITAIRE was created on dancer John Harnage, who seemed ideal as a sort of “lost boy”; tonight, Alex Clayton took on the role and gave it a different feeling. Alex seemed to be a searcher…seeking something (or someone) to hold onto. His solo was sublimely danced, and a fleeting encounter with Lee Duveneck seemed more developed than I recall from the premiere season. Meanwhile, the music – veering from dramatic to tender, from ominous to shimmering – proved that Ms. Lovette had been right to create a dancework on it.
The Andrews Sisters’ songs used in Taylor’s COMPANY B were recorded between 1937 and 1953. I can recall my grandmother playing them on her old Victrola; my mom sometimes sang along – in her limited, 5-note range – and I would dance and mimic the words. My favorite was always Tico-Tico, with its very catchy beat and word-play.
Tonight, it was again vastly pleasing to hear this collection of songs; while the atmosphere in mostly light-hearted and upbeat, the choreography subtly depicts a darker side of things: soldiers marching off to war, a sex-trafficking mother, a youthful bugler shot down, a new recruit leaving his beloved bereft as he goes to face the horrors of war. COMPANY B is one of Paul Taylor’s most original and compelling works.
Tonight’s cast did the Master proud with their dancing, their acting, and their dedication to the Taylor heritage. Kristen Draucker and Austin Kelly gave us a lively Pennsylvania Polka, and Alex Clayton was a perfect Tico. Lee Duveneck was hilarious in Oh, Johnny! Oh! Johnny! Oh! and Ms. Ferretti so touching in her dance of broken dreams. The carefree innocence of John Harnage’s lively Bugle Boy being cut down by a single bullet, and the afore-mentioned Ms. Primer selling herself and her daughter to sailors drunk on Rum and Coca-Cola were upsetting vignettes. The big heartbreak comes with There Will Never Be Another You , hauntingly danced by Elizabeth Chapa and Davon Louis, knowing that they may never see one another again.
It was Tico Tico that I carried with me out into the chilly evening; I’ve been singing it ever since the show. The song reminds me of my own Tico, far way across the Pacific.
“For just a birdie – and a birdie who goes nowhere – he knows of every lovers’ lane and how to go there.”
~ Oberon
Oberon's Glade 