Tag: Paul Taylor Dance Company

Paul Taylor ~ Early Works @ The Joyce: Images

Above: Kristin Draucker in Paul Taylor’s Images and Reflections

Some images from Paul Taylor Dance Company‘s June 2022 season at The Joyce; the photos are by Ron Thiele. Read about the Company’s opening night performance here.

Lisa Borres in Paul Taylor’s FIBERS

John Harnage in Paul Taylor’s Images and Reflections

From Michelle Manzanales’ HOPE IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS

Lisa Borres and Devon Louis in Paul Taylor’s FIBERS

Eran Bugge, Madelyn Ho, Alex Clayton, and John Harnage in Paul Taylor’s PROFILES

Shawn Lesniak and the Company in Michelle Manzanales’ HOPE IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS

Devon Louis and Maria Ambrose in Paul Taylor’s AUREOLE

Madelyn Ho, John Harnage, and Eran Bugge in Paul Taylor’s PROFILES

All photos by Ron Thiele, courtesy of the Paul Taylor Dance Company

June 16, 2022
Celebrating Michael Trusnovec @ Paul Taylor

Above: Michael Trusnovec

~ Author: Oberon

Friday March 23rd, 2018 – This evening, at Mr. B’s House, we celebrated Michael Trusnovec’s 20th anniversary with the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Michael, one of the greatest dancers of our time, danced in all three works on tonight’s program. No one who has ever experienced a Michael Trusnovec performance needs to be told about his classically handsome face, his to-die-for physique, his complete command of every role he’s cast in, his peerless partnering skills, his musicality, his generosity of spirit, and his humble grace in acknowledging big ovations. All of this was wonderfully in evidence tonight. To be a star in an all-star Company, and to dance night after night the works of a master choreographer: what more could a dancer ask?

The three ballets on offer tonight were strongly contrasted in music, movement, and style. The program showed off the vast range of the Taylor dancers, and their priceless gift for keeping the Taylor masterworks ever-fresh whilst being ready, willing, and able to tackle new choreography and make it their own.

Above: from Doug Varone’s HALF LIFE, a Paul B Goode photo

Doug Varone’s HALF LIFE, set to a score by Julia Wolfe, with lighting by James Ingalls and costumes designed by Liz Prince, opened the evening. This ballet premiered earlier this season. It begins with Eran Bugge and George Smallwood dancing in-sync, in silence, on a bare stage with over-head fluorescent lighting. Then the music begins: vibrant and driven, it propels the dancers into a veritable whirlwind of motion and commotion. Fear seems to be the driving force behind all this activity as they dash about, full of apprehension, making fleeting contact with one another before rushing off in another direction. Terror has descended upon them as they push and pull, fall and rise, entangle and break free, twist, turn, and fling themselves about the space. Periodically, a dancer will raise his arm towards heaven, imploring god’s intervention. Like billions of prayers down the centuries, these remain unanswered.

The fluorescent lights have turned to a toxic, lurid yellow as they begin to descend, flattening the space as the dancers run away, hopefully to a fallout shelter. The lights sputter out.

HALF LIFE might be viewed as a ballet for the new nuclear age that threatens us now as today’s world leaders seem to be moving towards a “my bomb’s bigger than your bomb” mentality. While Mr. Varone’s choreography – so relentless, filled with an almost random dynamism – is exciting to behold in and of itself, watching the dancers thru my strong opera glasses added another whole dimension: their intense facial expressions, the fear and wariness in their eyes, and their desperation to communicate with one another brought the panic and dread of these uncertain times into sharp focus. HALF LIFE isn’t just a bunch of people rushing about with manic energy, but a commentary on the human condition as our planet experiences a second Age of Anxiety.

There were countless passages in which to focus on the individual dancers; clad in simple off-the-rack style clothing, they all look beautiful, even in their distress. The men – Mr. Trusnovec, Robert Kleinendorst, Sean Mahoney, Michael Novak, Mr. Smallwood, Lee Duveneck, and Alex Clayton – flung themselves into fast-paced moves and tricky, split-second partnering. Yet my opera glasses were continually lured by the women: Michelle Fleet, Parisa Khobdeh, Eran Bugge, Laura Halzack, and Heather McGinley. Ms. McGinley, the Company’s knockout redhead, danced up a storm. They all did, in fact.

There was a gigantic roar of applause as the curtain fell, and as pairs of dancers stepped forward during the bows, screams of epic proportion filled the hall: all so eminently deserved. At a time when so much new choreography seems simply to be going thru the motions, Mr. Varone – richly abetted by Ms. Wolfe’s tumultuous score – gives us an unnervingly timely piece. The dancers took it and ran with it. Thrilling!

Above: Parisa Khobdeh and Michael Trusnovec in EVENTIDE, a Paul B Goode photo

EVENTIDE, one of Taylor’s most lyrical works, unfolds before a backdrop of hazy trees on a late-Summer afternoon in the English countryside. The Ralph Vaughan Williams score brought forth idyllic playing from the Orchestra of St Luke’s and violist David Cerutti.

The ensemble dance a graceful and courtly Prelude, then individual couples appear in a series of duets. In the first, Parisa Khobdeh and Michael Trusnovec summon feelings of slightly hesitant tenderness; it finishes with Ms. Khobdeh perched on Mr. Trusnovec’s shoulder. There’s a bit of playfulness in the second duet, with Jamie Rae Walker and Sean Mahoney clearly attracted to one another but not quite sure of how to express it. I really like their partnership.

In a gorgeous, adagio/pas de quatre Heather McGinley and Michael Novak simply radiate gentle romance, Ms. McGinley’s eyes sweetly downcast so as not to be blinded by the handsomeness of her cavalier, whilst Mr. Novak shows a quiet pride at having such a distinctive beauty as Ms. McGinley on his arm. It’s a duet of mutual admiration and reassurance.

Deep and heartfelt emotion seems to fill the air as Laura Halzack and James Samson danced together in sublime harmony, casting tender looks into one another’s eyes; a moment when Laura simply touched James’s cheek was just unbearably lovely. This stage has been home to some very charismatic partnerships – Suzanne and Peter, Wendy and Jock – but few have moved me as much as watching Laura and James together this season.

A shadow falls over the meadow as Eran Bugge enters, wary but oddly hopeful: she’s being pursued by a quietly predatory Robert Kleinendorst, and as their duet ends, Robert leaves Eran on her own…a very significant moment, as she is both safe but perhaps also just a bit sorry. Together, Eran and Rob told this story so expressively.

Heather McGinley and Michael Novak bring a sense of open-hearted richness to their second duet. It’s a long pas de deux, but with these two dancing it could have been twice as long and remained thoroughly mesmerizing. Finally Ms. Khobdeh and Mr. Trusnovec re-appear in a poignant pas de deux, finding solace in their romance: elegant and sustaining dance, awash with fond devotion.

EVENTIDE concludes with an extended promenade for the entire cast. As ever, this ballet left me musing on my own romantic choices over the years, filled with notions of what might have been.

CLOVEN KINGDOM is a ballet I never tire of seeing. It was given a magical glow tonight, with everyone incredibly finding an extra iota of energy, commitment, and inspiration in honor of their colleague, Mr. Trusnovec.

Michelle Fleet, Jamie Rae Walker, Eran Bugge, and Parisa Khobdeh ease thru high-toned samba sways one minute, and then they’re flipping cartwheels the next. I just loved watching them thru my trusty binocs. Laura Halzack and Christina Lynch Markham are bound together by some mythic spell: we don’t quite know what their story is, but I never tire of trying to figure it out. Madelyn Ho periodically flashes across the stage in pursuit of Heather McGinley, who remains confidently self-absorbed as she carries on with her jetés.

Tonight, Mr. Trusnovec had Mssrs. Samson, Apuzzo, and Smallwood as his fellow tuxedoed teammates for the men’s pas de quatre that’s at the epicenter of this cloven kingdom. Their fearless athleticism and bizarre rituals underscore the Spinoza quote that always accompanies this ballet’s listing in the Playbill: “Man is a social animal.”

A whooping ovation greeted the first CLOVEN KINGDOM curtain call, a full-cast bow. Then the curtain rose again with Mr. Trusnovec alone onstage, clutching a huge bunch of flowers. Massive applause and cheers: the audience simply went crazy as Michael’s fellow dancers pelted him with bouquets from the wings.

Of Michael Trusnovec, Robert Gottlieb wrote in the New York Observer: “He’s the greatest male dancer we’ve had in America since Mikhail Baryshnikov, with whom he shares an immense range and a selfless devotion to his art. Trusnovec never demands your attention, but he always has it.” I couldn’t agree more.

~ Oberon

March 23, 2018
Paul Taylor @ Lincoln Center 2015 #3

Above: Michael Trusnovec and ensemble in Paul Taylor’s Brandenburgs; photo by Paul B Goode

Saturday evening March 21st, 2015 – This evening, the programme at Paul Taylor Dance Company’s Lincoln Center season featured Taylor’s latest creation, Death and The Damsel, book-ended by two of his celebrated works from the 1980s: Sunset and Brandenburgs.

The simple but evocative Alex Katz set design for Sunset shows a flat aquamarine sky with suggestions of tree limbs in black. Along one side of the stage is an iron fence, which might also be a ballet barre. A group of soldiers in khakis and red berets are lounging and casually dancing. We know not what country they serve; they are simply universal soldiers.

Above: Robert Kleinendorst and Michael Trusnovec in Sunset; photo by Paul B Goode

Unlike Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free, to which it is sometimes compared, Sunset is mostly devoid of humor or playfulness. Perhaps Taylor’s soldiers are part of an occupying force. When three white-clad girls appear, there are flirtations, tensions, and hopes. But Sunset retains throughout an under-current of sadness, fed by the wistful lyricism of the Edward Elgar score.

Above: Aileen Roehl and the ensemble in Sunset; photo by Paul B Goode

Passing playfulness – with four lovely ladies Aileen Roehl, Michelle Fleet, Parisa Khobdeh, and Eran Bugge – gives way to the sounds of birdcalls as dusk approaches. The tone becomes more pensive. In a sustained passage with the men, Ms. Bugge seems angelic, the white purity of her dress matching the purity of her dancing. The men then march off: to guard duty? To battle? Or to an unknown fate.

Paul Taylor’s newest work, Death and the Damsel, is set to Bohuslav Martinů’s Sonata #2, beautifully played live from the pit by Myron Lutzke (cello) and Margaret Kampmeier (piano). Massive backdrops of Gotham cityscapes (designed by Santo Loquasto) loom over the action; especially marvelous is Loquasto’s view of the Chrysler Building.

Jamie Rae Walker awakens from sleep in her tiny loft-room. In her introductory solo, Ms. Walker does everything from fouetté turns to cartwheels, expressing her innocence and her joy at living in the most exciting city on Earth. Suddenly her peace of mind is disturbed by the entrance of vampiric creatures dressed in black leather with Goth hairdos and makeup.

The action suddenly shifts to a dance club where Ms. Walker is heartlessly gang-raped. In a duet which combines terror and deadly allure, the girl is partnered by the glowingly sinister Michael Trusnovec. Later, she tries to fend off the gorgeously evil and predatory Laura Halzack. The ballet ends with Ms. Walker apparently being devoured by her attackers (though the people seated behind us were saying the ending was somewhat different at an earlier performance they had seen). Whether the scenario represents the damsel’s nightmare or her secret fantasy we cannot guess; but the work did offer a big opportunity for Ms. Walker and she made the most of it.

Above: the Taylor men in Brandenburgs; photo by Paul B Goode

Paul Taylor’s 1988 abstract Bach ballet Brandenburgs brought the evening to a marvelous close. Wearing Santo Loquasto’s rich forest-green velvety costumes, the men perform stylized leaps and semaphoric gestures that made me think of some of Martha Graham’s unison passages. Three beauties appear – Michelle Fleet, Parisa Khobdeh, and Eran Bugge – each dancing a solo enmeshed with the men: each woman radiant and creating her own perfumed atmosphere. In an adagio solo demanding peerless physical control and expressiveness, Michael Trusnovec was simply magnificent. Tonight’s Brandenburgs showed Taylor’s choreography and his thrillingly talented dancers at their very finest.

Above: Parisa Khobdeh and the ensemble in Brandenburgs; photo by Paul B Goode

I loved running into Annmaria Mazzini and John Eirich tonight.

March 21, 2015
Paul Taylor @ Lincoln Center 2013 #5

Above: from Paul Taylor’s PROMETHEAN FIRE. Photo by Paul B Goode. Click on the image to enlarge.

Saturday March 23rd, 2013 matinee – My final performance of the Paul Taylor Dance Company‘s 2013 Lincoln Center season. It’s been a brilliant three weeks and the Company are dancing superbly. Celebrating Bach’s birthday with a Bach ballet on every single programme has been an added source of joy, and the Company’s press liaison Lisa Labrado assured me of a warm welcome every time I attended. The Taylor company are outstandingly generous to dance writers, and it’s always a great pleasure to find Rachel Berman and Richard Chen-See – former Company dancers – circulating among the guests, making us feel a part of the Taylor family.

This matinee opened with KITH AND KIN, dating from 1987 and set to a Mozart serenade. A tall and elegant couple in brown – radiant Amy Young and James Samson – preside over a flock of energetic young people who seem to be celebrating the sheer joy of being alive in stylized passages of leaps and restless comings and goings. Set slightly apart from this community is the magnetic Heather McGinley, a friendly (and gorgeous) guardian angel. In the central adagio, Amy and James dance with formal grace as Aileen Roehl and Michael Apuzzo swirl about them, perhaps representing their younger selves. This ballet, new to me this season, shows a happy meeting place of generations, with the stately ‘senior’ couple presiding overall yet still capable of having a little fun of their own.

The poignantly dark splendours of THE UNCOMMITTED evolve first to the gleaming, celestial strains of Arvo Part’s Fratres as the dancers – in richly-hued body stockings with rose-red highlights – appear in a series of brief solos. This is a world inhabited by lonely spirits, seeking – but eventually unable – to connect with one another. Paul Taylor again turns again to Mozart as a series of duets unfold; each couple hovers on the brink of understanding but in the end none can sustain a relationship. Even the number of dancers involved – eleven – implies from the start that there will always be an odd man out. Despite its rather bleak emotional outlook, THE UNCOMMITTED provides a wonderful opportunity to focus on the individual lustre of each of the dancers – and what an ensemble it is: Michael Trusnovec, Amy Young, Robert Kleinendorst, Michelle Fleet, Parisa Khobdeh, Eran Bugge, Francsco Graciano, Laura Halzack, Michael Apuzzo, Aileen Roehl and Michael Novak.

Bach provides the setting for a grand finale to the programme: PROMETHEAN FIRE. For this ballet, the entire Company are onstage; the dancers listed above are joined by James Samson, Sean Mahoney, Jamie Rae Walker, Heather McGinley and George Smallwood. In their velvety black costumes subtly trimmed with silver, the dancers revel in Mr. Taylor’s complex and visually inspiring combinations: PROMETHEAN FIRE is a masterpiece of structure, formal yet joyously human in expression. The heart of this sumptuous ballet is an adagio in which the combined genius of Mozart and Taylor moves us to the highest realms of spiritual satisfaction. Parisa Khobdeh and Michael Trusnovec were at their most transportive here, the partnering remarkable in its beauty and power, their personal magnetism magically aglow. Indeed it was one of the most moving and soul-stirring experiences in my long memory of watching dance.

PROMETHEAN FIRE concludes with a splendid tableau of the Company dancers and for a moment we could simply relish their collective perfection, for it is they who in the end have the ultimate responsibility of making the choreography live and breathe. Then Mr. Taylor appeared for a bow and the audience swept to their feet with resounding cheers.

March 23, 2013
Paul Taylor @ Lincoln Center 2013 #4

Above: Robert Kleinendorst of Paul Taylor Dance Company in SPEAKING IN TONGUES. Photo by Paul B Goode. Click on the image to enlarge.

Thursday March 21st, 2013 – Paul Taylor Dance Company have been celebrating Johann Sebastian Bach throughout their current Lincoln Center season: there’s been a Bach ballet on every programme and today – the actual birthdate of the peerless composer – the dancers gave a glorious performance of ESPLANADE, seeming to up their ‘normal’ level of energy, musicality, passion and sheer daring to a breathtaking point.

The programme opened with SPEAKING IN TONGUES, a complex work which always leaves me with mixed feelings. Matthew Patton’s score does not seem strong enough to sustain a ballet which lasts almost an hour, and to my aging ears the interjections of spoken word no longer have the clarity needed to make a dramatic impact. The work stretches long, but there is no part of it that seems expendable: it is what it is, and perhaps best viewed with a focus on individual dancers.

Surely there are few dance experiences today to equal the thrill of watching Michael Trusnovec onstage. This dancer with his taut, slender muscularity and singular artistry gave a transfixing rendering of the preacher-man’s opening solo and then moved thru the rest of the ballet with compelling dramatic intensity. Likewise Robert Kleinendorst as the Odd Man Out struck a vibrant note as his open, innocent personality is slowly dismantled by the holier-than-thou congregation; he’s literally beaten into submission, and at last taken into the cult. Also making a strong impact in this work were Amy Young, Laura Halzack, James Samson, Sean Mahoney, Jamie Rae Walker, Aileen Roehl, Heather McGinley, Michael Novak and Michael Apuzzo. Those sumptuous beauties Parisa Khobdeh and Michelle Fleet were outstanding in their prominent solo passages.

My companion for the evening, choreographer Lydia Johnson, helped me to see this work in a somewhat different light than I had previously, and to understand why the dancers love dancing SPEAKING IN TONGUES.

Seeing Taylor’s ESPLANADE on Balanchine’s stage made for a joyful experience: the two great masters of modern and ballet choreography each turned to the same Bach music and thus ESPLANADE reminds us of CONCERTO BAROCCO, as different as they are in style and setting. And one of my favorite BAROCCO ballerinas, Teresa Reichlen, was sitting a few rows behind us.

In ESPLANADE the sense of dynamism and physical risk play high, and the superb collective of Taylor dancers went at it with unfettered vitality: Amy Young, Laura Halzack, Eran Bugge, Parisa Khobdeh, Jamie Rae Walker, Robert Kleinendorst, Francisco Graciano and George Smallwood all looked smashingly beautiful and grand, and if it was Michelle Fleet who ended up stealing our collective hearts, that too was part of Taylor’s plan. The audience, psyched by the fantastic performance, erupted in a massive ovation when the choreographer appeared onstage for a bow.

March 21, 2013
Paul Taylor’s BELOVED RENEGADE

Thursday March 29, 2012 – Nearing the end of their exciting seaon at Lincoln Center, the Paul Taylor Dance Company tonight presented one of the choreographer’s finest recent creations, BELOVED RENEGADE. In Tom Caravaglia’s photo above, dancers Michael Trusnovec and Laura Halzack.

BELOVED RENEGADE premiered in 2008 and was hailed not only as an outstanding example of Taylor’s choreographic genius but also as a perfect vehicle for one of the greatest dancers of our day, Michael Trusnovec. Danced to Francis Poulenc’s GLORIA and drawing inspiration from the poetry of Walt Whitman, this large-ensemble work is both sensuous and spiritual. Mr. Trusnovec gave a luminous performance which elicited a particularly warm response form the audience. The dancer’s slender, all-muscle form moved through this poetic dreamworld with consummate power and grace.

With Michael Trusnovec at the work’s epicenter, the other dancers made vivid impressions: notably Laura Halzack, Amy Young, Parisa Khobdeh and Robert Kleinendorst all of whom have been at their finest during this wonderfully pleasing Taylor season.

Michael Trusnovec and Amy Young opened the evening in a performance of AUREOLE which – in its fiftieth year – still looks fresh and vital. Francisco Graciano, Michelle Fleet and Heather McGinley danced with great verve; Michael Trusnovec’s solo was a page of visual poetry and the lovely tenderness of his duet with Amy Young gave AUREOLE its gentle soul.

The evening in fact was something of a Michael Trusnovec festival as he finished off the programme in the exciting Bach/Stokowski PROMETHEAN FIRE. Parisa Khobdeh danced radiantly here, and indeed the entire Company seemed inspired tonight. The appearance of Paul Taylor at the end caused much joy in the House as the audience swept to their feet to acclaim both the dancers and the dancemaker.

Curtain call. Click on the image to enlarge.

March 29, 2012
Superb AUREOLE/Paul Taylor Dance Company

Above: Michael Trusnovec of the Paul Taylor Dance Company photographed by Jordan Matter.

Sunday March 25, 2012 matinee – Among the many works being presented by Paul Taylor Dance Company during their premiere season at Lincoln Center, AUREOLE (celebrating its fiftieth birthday) looked outstandingly fresh and fine this afternoon. The cast was led by Michael Trusnovec who gave a performance of great clarity and lyric power in the role’s expressive solo. Michael has been dancing magnificently all season and today, both in AUREOLE and the afternoon’s concluding SYZYGY, he was on top form: one of the truly great male dancers of our time.

For AUREOLE’s beautiful but all-too-brief pas de deux, Amy Young was at her loveliest; she and Michael danced in perfect harmony in this Springtime duet. Mr. Trusnovec was not the only top-flight male dancer in the cast: Francisco Graciano gave a vivid performance of his athletic and very demanding role, his dancing crisp and crystal clear. Gorgeous dancing from Michelle Fleet and Heather McGinley put just the right finishing touch on this ballet. An all-star cast in a Taylor masterwork: life is good.

It seemed a bit odd to have back-to-back comedies as the central segment of the programme; perhaps being a matinee it was thought to play to the many kids in the audience. I would have chosen one or the other and in fact could have done without TROILUS AND CRESSIDA altogether, except that Robert Kleinendorst looks so hot in his underwear.

Poor Ponchielli! Walt Disney and Allan Sherman have conspired to make the ballet music from LA GIOCONDA a source of mirth for millions of people who wouldn’t know the Ca D’Oro from a bowling alley. Over the last half-century at The Met ballerinas like Sally Brayley, Nira Paaz, and Allegra Kent have danced to this music; in 2006 Christopher Wheeldon re-choreographed the ballet for the Met’s Montresor production: Angel Corella, Danny Tidwell, Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg have danced Christopher’s bravura and only slightly tongue-in-cheek version, while Ashley Bouder performed it splendidly with MORPHOSES at City Center. Paul Taylor’s take on the Dance of the Hours goes in for pratfalls and guffaws. It couldn’t end soon enough.

By contrast, GOSSAMER GALLANTS, which had seemed like a major bit of fluff when I first saw it, now looked more appealing. The Smetana score is entertaining, and there’s quite a bit of real dancing mixed in with the horseplay…and the bug-spray.

SYZYGY dates from 1987 but for me it’s a real 60’s piece. Watching the dancers whirl and swirl madly about the stage, I feel like it’s the Summer of Love and everyone’s more than a bit high. I half-expected Janis Joplin to materialize in her feathers and finery and sing “Try…Just a Little Bit Harder”. Donald York’s synthesizer-rich score amplifies this feeling: it’s kozmic, to say the least.

The title SYZYGY comes from a term used to describe those rare times when the sun, moon and Earth are in perfect alignment. It’s a great finale for a Taylor performance, and it was brilliantly danced today.

March 25, 2012
More Paul Taylor @ City Center

Saturday February 25, 2011 evening – DUST, set to Francis Poulenc’s Concert Champetre. opened the evening at City Center as Paul Taylor Dance Company continued their exciting season there. In the collage-photo above by Tom Caravaglia, the dancers are Laura Halzack, Jeffrey Smith, Michelle Fleet and Parisa Khobdeh.

In this work, first performed in 1977, Taylor hobbles his dancers with various physical infirmities. While the movement suggests struggle and despair, the Poulenc music with its eerily tinkling harpisichord – which the great Wanda Landowska who premiered the piece in 1929 said made her feel “insouciant and gay” – sounds in direct contrast of mood to what we are watching onstage. This is one of those cases of a choreographer going against the grain of the music and making something unique out of it.

One of the most memorable sequences in the darkly unsettling DUST is a solo danced by the majestically lovely Laura Halzack where she is surrounded by blind people moving hesitently around her. There were extraordinary performances by Annamaria Mazzini and Amy Young as well, with the ensemble completed by James Samson, Robert Kleinendorst, Michelle Fleet, Jeffrey Smith, Eran Bugge and Jamie Rae Walker.

One of Paul Taylor’s newest creations, THREE DUBIOUS MEMORIES, evolves around a romantic triangle. Anyone who has ever been involved in one of these three-sided relationships knows that each party will have his or her own take on the situation: how it started, how it is kept going and how it might end. Taylor, using a multi-faceted score by Peter Elyakim Taussig (photo above) entitled Five Enigmas, sets his new work so that we see the story told from each point of view: from the woman’s and from each of the two men. Each of the men – Sean Mahoney in blue and Robert Kleinendorst in green – see the other man as the interloper while the woman – Amy Young wearing a bright red dress – seems to think the men are actually attracted to one another and she is the unwitting third party. This third vignette brings a humorous vein to a basically serious and thoughtful work.

Amy Young (above in Tom Caravaglia’s photo) gave a wonderfully expressive and beautifully danced performance as the woman while the two men duked it out in stylized fist fights. When Sean and Robert were later depicted as happy and relaxed gay lovers, Amy gave a decisive portrayal of a woman scorned. To all of this a chorus of dancers led by James Samson made visual comments on the action. The work is complex and each of the three stories is set to music with a different feeling: pulsating rhythms for the man in blue, chant-like spitituality for the man in green, and minor-key jazzy for the woman’s narrative. I’m glad that I’ll get a chance to see this new work again next week; now that I know the premise and structure I will be able to savor the details. On first viewing the last minutes of the work, after the three tales have been told, seemed a bit long but maybe that will sort out in future encounters.

I rate CLOVEN KINGDOM (created in 1976) very high among my favorite Taylor works, not least for its fusion score. So I had no problem seeing it two nights in a row (with a third viewing set for next week). This evening the four men in the cast gave a teriffic performance: Michael Trusnovec, Robert Kleinendorst, Francisco Graciano and Michael Novak. The four women in mirrored headwear were also superb: Amy Young and Laura Halzack – in an interrupted duet that picks up where it left off – along with Aileen Roehl who, in diagonals of spirted jumps, pursues the enigmatic Eran Bugge who is clad in lime green and balancing a silvery globe on her head. Annamaria Mazzini, Michelle Fleet, Parisa Khobdeh and Jamie Rae Walker weave beautifully in and out of this mysterious ballroom where things are not always as they seem.

February 26, 2011