~ Author: Oberon
Wednesday November 19th, 2025 – An all-Taylor evening at Lincoln Center opened with SCUDORAMA, continued with SUNSET, and ended with Taylor’s signature work, ESPLANADE.
This was my second SCUDORAMA of the current season; thru the years, I have found myself changing my mind about this piece every time I see it. Earlier in the current season, I found it wasn’t reaching me on any level, aside from the dancing itself. Tonight, I thought the score was fascinating, and that there’s lots to like about the staging and choreography…as well as lots that seems incomprehensible.
The musicians of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by David LaMarche, really got into it tonight. At the performance 2 weeks ago, my companion had found that the Clarence Jackson score has a Bernstein feeling to it; tonight, I could hear that reference clear as a bell.
The dancing was exceptional tonight; Devon Louis and Kenny Corrigan excelled in their duet, as did Gabielle Barnes and Madelyn Ho in theirs; and Kristin Draucker and Mr. Louis make a marvelous partnership. The dark clouds in a post-apocalypse sky remain an intriguing mystery.
Paul Taylor’s SUNSET is one of the Master’s finest lyrical masterpieces. Created in 1983, the set and lighting by Alex Katz and Jennifer Tipton’s lighting create a uniquely peaceful atmosphere; but there are undercurrents of tension as well. The luminous music by Edward Elgar is made more affecting by the recorded cries of loons.
A group of young soldiers in red berets are hanging out in a park at twilight; perhaps they’re awaiting marching orders for the coming morn. The set is so simple: bare branches of trees, painted on bare walls, imply that its Autumn…and a rail fence could be an allusion to a ballet barre.
Girls in white dresses come by to flirt: Madelyn Ho, Kristin Draucker, Jada Pearman, and Jessica Ferretti all look so innocent. The soldiers – Lee Duveneck, Alex Clayton, Devon Louis, John Harnage, Kenny Corrigan, and Patrick Gamble – seem at times swaggering, at others…uncertain. A duet for Lee Duveneck and John Harnage alludes to something beyond soldierly camaraderie, and the ever-lovely Madelyn Ho shines in a dance of almost childlike playfulness. Jada Pearman is radiant in a section with the boys that seems to evoke a remembered time. A dropped beret as the soldiers move out is saved as a souvenir; many years hence, it will be found stashed in a bureau drawer and produce a flood of memory.
Kudos again to the St. Luke’s players, under Tara Simoncic’s baton, for their entrancing playing of Elgar’s music. The recorded loon calls lend a nostalgic air, though my companion found then somewhat ominous.
I never tire of ESPLANADE, one of Taylor’s most perfect meshings of music and movement. Violinists Krista Bennion Feeney and Alex U Fortes regaled us with their playing of the timelessly evocative music of Bach; their St. Luke’s colleagues, under Maestro LaMarche’s baton, made us feel that everything’s right with the world.
The dancers – Kristin Draucker, Jada Pearman, Jessica Ferretti, Gabrielle Barnes, Emmy Wildermuth, and Elizabeth Chapa with Lee Duveneck, Devon Louis, and Austin Kelly – danced to perfection. I’ve been very much taken with Ms. Barnes this season; she – and all the dancers – seemed to be inspired Bach’s music, making for many truly gorgeous moments as ESPLANADE unfolded tonight..
In the ballet’s final movement, famous for Paul Taylor’s choreography which calls on the dancers to race about the stage at hi-velocity whilst periodically flinging themselves to the floor, the dancers were astounding. This is a risky business, but tonight the dancers seemed bent on challenging one another to feats of derring-do. In a solo passage, Emily Wildermuth captivated the crowd with her extraordinary passion and commitment. Earlier in the piece, Emily had shown another facet of her dancing in a lyrical duet with Devon Louis.
ESPLANADE ends as the dancers rush off in different directions, leaving the irresistible Jada Pearman alone onstage, opening her arms as if to embrace all of us.
For a while, this iconic moment in dance was owned by Michelle Fleet. Tonight, I was thinking back to my earliest Taylor experiences, at Jacob’s Pillow back in the late 1970s, and how the roster has evolved over the years. Dancers with extraordinary technical prowess and engrossing personalities have passed their roles onto the next generations, and the Taylor flame burns as brightly as ever.
It was in this pensive mood that one of my favorite Taylor heroes, Take Ueyama, came over tonight to say hello.
~ Oberon
Oberon's Glade 